Political Economy of the Free Market System and its effect on our work and personal lives.
Political Economy of the Free Market System and its effect on our work and personal lives.
By: Christina Bajwa
“A fusion of economic and political theory into one single social theory” is the definition of political economy provided by the great Yugoslav economist Branko Horvat that Philips uses in his book, Inside Capitalism: An Introduction to Political economy, to explain how it is different from orthodox economics and politics, but rather a combination of both and its social impact on the masses and their every day personal and work life (Philips, 2003, p. 1, 2). Political economy looks at the relationship between individuals and society, as well as markets and the state utilizing a holistic approach obtained from the schools of Economics, Political Science and Sociology. According to political economists, it is impossible to study or understand the economy as a whole without understanding the distribution of economic power of the social and political institutions that form all of its day to day operations. Economics, according to orthodox economists is viewed simply as the relations of the market independent of any political, social or economic power, however political economists such as Philips strongly believe that this is a highly narrow approach that leads to a minimal understanding of the real world and the most important component of our society, ‘the labour market’ (Philips, 2003, p. 2). By focusing all of the attention simply on the analysis and calculation of the market structure, the effects of it on people’s, working class’s, quality of life, income distribution, the environment and the distribution of political power get neglected (Radcliff, 2001, p. 939, 940). This paper will be using a political economic perspective to examine the free market, the role of power and Neoliberalism within it, and how it negatively affects our work and personal lives. Power is the ability of a person or a group of people to be
By: Christina Bajwa
“A fusion of economic and political theory into one single social theory” is the definition of political economy provided by the great Yugoslav economist Branko Horvat that Philips uses in his book, Inside Capitalism: An Introduction to Political economy, to explain how it is different from orthodox economics and politics, but rather a combination of both and its social impact on the masses and their every day personal and work life (Philips, 2003, p. 1, 2). Political economy looks at the relationship between individuals and society, as well as markets and the state utilizing a holistic approach obtained from the schools of Economics, Political Science and Sociology. According to political economists, it is impossible to study or understand the economy as a whole without understanding the distribution of economic power of the social and political institutions that form all of its day to day operations. Economics, according to orthodox economists is viewed simply as the relations of the market independent of any political, social or economic power, however political economists such as Philips strongly believe that this is a highly narrow approach that leads to a minimal understanding of the real world and the most important component of our society, ‘the labour market’ (Philips, 2003, p. 2). By focusing all of the attention simply on the analysis and calculation of the market structure, the effects of it on people’s, working class’s, quality of life, income distribution, the environment and the distribution of political power get neglected (Radcliff, 2001, p. 939, 940). This paper will be using a political economic perspective to examine the free market, the role of power and Neoliberalism within it, and how it negatively affects our work and personal lives. Power is the ability of a person or a group of people to be
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