Description of Political Economy (Pols 204)

Introduction

Political economy is best understood not just by what it studies, but by how it studies it — as an interdisciplinary field concerned with the power relations underlying production, distribution, and consumption. This notes clarifies the descriptive dimensions of political economy, tracing its intellectual lineage from the classical period to modern international political economy.

Analysis, economy, people

Defining Political Economy

Political economy is a branch of the social sciences that studies the relationship between individuals and society, and between markets and states. It is, therefore, a study of social relations — particularly power relations — that mutually constitute the production, distribution, and consumption of resources. It examines how political institutions, the political environment, and economic systems influence one another.

Key Descriptive Features

1. Interdisciplinarity — Political economy bridges political science and economics but is not confined to them; it draws on sociology, history, geography, and anthropology, among other disciplines, to build a fuller picture of social and economic life.

2. The "political" in economy — Political economy asks not merely how goods are produced, but who decides what is produced, how output is shared, and whose interests dominate that process.

3. The "economic" in politics — This dimension recognises that political power is rooted in material conditions — explaining phenomena such as finance-driven political campaigns, class-based political parties, and economic voting (where voters' choices are shaped by economic self-interest or conditions).

4. Concern with change — Political economy centres on the transformation of societies, particularly transitions from one mode of production to another — such as the shift from feudalism to capitalism, or from colonial to post-colonial economic and political arrangements.

Classical and Modern Traditions

Political economy has distinct historical phases:

• The classical period (c. 1776–1870s): Known as the era of the "science of wealth," concerned with the laws of production and distribution in relation to state policy. This period was represented by Adam Smith and David Ricardo, spanning roughly from the publication of Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) to the marginalist revolution of the 1870s, which shifted mainstream economics away from classical political economy toward neoclassical analysis.
• The Marxist period (c. 1867–1970s/80s): Concerned with modes of production, class struggle, and the "laws of motion" of society. This period was represented by Karl Marx (whose Capital, Volume I was published in 1867), Vladimir Lenin, and Claude Ake — the influential Nigerian political scientist known for applying Marxist political economy to the study of African underdevelopment and the state.
• Modern International Political Economy (from the 1970s): Defined as the study of interactions between markets and states at both domestic and international levels, this field emerged as a distinct area of study in the 1970s, associated with scholars such as Robert Gilpin and Susan Strange, partly in response to the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system and growing global economic interdependence.

Conclusion

Political economy's descriptive power lies in its refusal to separate the political from the economic, and its attentiveness to power, class, and historical transformation as drivers of social change. From Smith and Ricardo's classical concern with the laws of wealth, through Marx, Lenin, and Ake's focus on class struggle and underdevelopment, to the modern study of state-market interaction at the global level, political economy has continually adapted its focus while retaining its core commitment to analysing power relations in economic life.