New political economy
Encyclopedia
New political economy students treat economic ideologies as the phenomenon to be explained. Thus, Charles S. Maier
suggests that a political economy approach: interrogates economic doctrines to disclose their sociological and political premises....in sum, [it] regards economic ideas and behavior not as frameworks for analysis, but as beliefs and actions that must themselves be explained. This approach informs Andrew Gamble's The Free Economy and the Strong State (Palgrave Macmillan, 1988), and Colin Hay's The Political Economy of New Labour (Manchester University Press, 1999). It also informs much work published in New Political Economy (journal)
an international journal founded by Sheffield University scholars in 1996.
Matthew Watson with Richard Higgott
in explicit response to Benjamin Cohen
's approach seek to move International Political Economy
away from the later's division of the subject into American and British camps and push their own vision - a vision of a 'New Political Economy'. This, they argue:
This new ‘new political economy’ attempts to combine the approach of the classical political economists (from Smith
to Marx
) with more recent "analytical advances". Authors adopting this approach include, Gamble (1996), Watson
himself and a series of authors in the edited work by Higgott and Payne (2000). The approach "rejects the old dichotomies – between agency and structure, between ideas and material interests, and between states and markets". The approach seeks to be explicit about the normative assumptions that lie behind their analysis and to be a "hosting metaphor" that will help political debate about societal preferences. Different levels of abstraction are needed to "deeply ground" work in as much detail about history, culture and society general as would be useful: a real world political economy offering explanations about the influence on choices of social meanings of both actions and objects.
This approach Watson and Higgot argue is increasing in its practitioners. They note its prevalence not only among both "Third World economic nationalists and academic critics of the neo-liberal policy agenda who find little comfort in the turn instead to anti-foundationalist theories associated with postmodernism" but also among many "mainstream" economists who have become disillusioned with neoclassical theory. On this they list Dani Rodrik
(1998) Paul Krugman
(1999) and Joseph Stiglitz (2002).
Charles S. Maier
Charles S. Maier is the Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History at Harvard University. He teaches European and international history at Harvard. Maier has also served as the director of the Center for European Studies at Harvard.Maier has written several books...
suggests that a political economy approach: interrogates economic doctrines to disclose their sociological and political premises....in sum, [it] regards economic ideas and behavior not as frameworks for analysis, but as beliefs and actions that must themselves be explained. This approach informs Andrew Gamble's The Free Economy and the Strong State (Palgrave Macmillan, 1988), and Colin Hay's The Political Economy of New Labour (Manchester University Press, 1999). It also informs much work published in New Political Economy (journal)
New Political Economy (journal)
New Political Economy is a peer-reviewed academic journal in the area of international political economy that covers research which "combines the breadth of vision which characterised the classical political economy of the nineteenth century with the analytical advances of twentieth century social...
an international journal founded by Sheffield University scholars in 1996.
Matthew Watson with Richard Higgott
Richard Higgott
Richard Higgott is a Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Warwick.He was president of the Australasian Political Studies Association....
in explicit response to Benjamin Cohen
Benjamin Cohen (professor)
Benjamin Jerry Cohen is the Louis G. Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy at the University of California, Santa Barbara...
's approach seek to move International Political Economy
International political economy
International political economy , also known as global political economy, is an academic discipline within the social sciences that analyzes international relations in combination with political economy. As an interdisciplinary field it draws on many distinct academic schools, most notably ...
away from the later's division of the subject into American and British camps and push their own vision - a vision of a 'New Political Economy'. This, they argue:
- transgresses conventional social science boundaries;
- explicitly rejects the loaded connotation of the ‘rigour’ that Cohen espouses because it sees this (in our terms) as unhelpful methodological competition
- resists the abstractionism of postmodernism in favour of the progressive principle that life might be made better
This new ‘new political economy’ attempts to combine the approach of the classical political economists (from Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
to Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
) with more recent "analytical advances". Authors adopting this approach include, Gamble (1996), Watson
himself and a series of authors in the edited work by Higgott and Payne (2000). The approach "rejects the old dichotomies – between agency and structure, between ideas and material interests, and between states and markets". The approach seeks to be explicit about the normative assumptions that lie behind their analysis and to be a "hosting metaphor" that will help political debate about societal preferences. Different levels of abstraction are needed to "deeply ground" work in as much detail about history, culture and society general as would be useful: a real world political economy offering explanations about the influence on choices of social meanings of both actions and objects.
This approach Watson and Higgot argue is increasing in its practitioners. They note its prevalence not only among both "Third World economic nationalists and academic critics of the neo-liberal policy agenda who find little comfort in the turn instead to anti-foundationalist theories associated with postmodernism" but also among many "mainstream" economists who have become disillusioned with neoclassical theory. On this they list Dani Rodrik
Dani Rodrik
Dani Rodrik is a Turkish economist and Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, teaching in the School's MPA/ID Program. He has published widely in the areas of international economics, economic development, and...
(1998) Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman is an American economist, professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times...
(1999) and Joseph Stiglitz (2002).