Critique of political economy or critique of economy is a form of social critique that rejects the various social categories and structures that constitute the mainstream discourse concerning the forms and modalities of resource allocation and income distribution in the

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

. The critique also rejects economists' use of what its advocates believe are unrealistic

axiom An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or f ...

s, faulty historical assumptions, and the

normative Normative generally means relating to an evaluative standard. Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A norm in ...

use of various

descriptive In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013). All acad ...

narratives. They reject what they describe as mainstream economists' tendency to posit the economy as an

a priori ("from the earlier") and ("from the later") are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. knowledge is independent from current ...

societal category. Those who engage in critique of economy tend to reject the view that the economy, and its categories, is to be understood as something

transhistorical Transhistoricity is the quality of holding throughout human history, not merely within the frame of reference of a particular form of society at a particular stage of historical development. An entity or concept that has transhistoricity is said to ...

. They rather argue that it is a relatively new mode of resource distribution, which emerged along with modernity. Hence, it is seen as merely one of many types of historically specific ways to distribute resources. Critics of economy critique the given status of the economy itself, and hence don't aim to create theories regarding how to administer economies. Critics of economy commonly view what is most commonly referred to as the economy as being bundles of

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

concepts, as well as societal and normative practices, rather than being the result of any "self-evident" or proclaimed "economic laws". Hence they also tend to consider the views which are commonplace within the field of economics as faulty, or simply as

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or falsifiability, unfa ...

. There are multiple critiques of

political economy Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...

today, but what they have in common is critique of what critics of political economy tend to view as

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...

, i.e. claims of "the economy" as a necessary and

societal category.

Ruskin

In the 1860s,

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

published his essay ''

Unto This Last ''Unto This Last'' is an essay critical of economics by John Ruskin, first published between August and December 1860 in the monthly journal ''Cornhill Magazine'' in four articles. Title The title is a quotation from the Parable of the Workers i ...

'' which he came to view as his central work. The essay was originally written as a series of publications in a magazine, which ended up having to suspend the publications, due to the severe controversy the articles caused. While Ruskin is generally known as an important art critic, his study of the history of art was a component that gave him some insight into the pre-modern societies of the Middle Ages, and their social organisation which he was able to contrast to his contemporary condition. Ruskin attempted to mobilize a methodological/scientific critique of new political economy, as it was envisaged by the classical economists. Ruskin viewed "the economy" as a kind of "collective mental lapse or collective

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include loss of consciousness (LOC); memory loss; headaches; difficulty with thinking, concentration, ...

", and he viewed the emphasis on precision in industry as a kind of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. Due to the fact that Ruskin regarded the political economy of his time as "mad", he said that it interested him as much as "a science of gymnastics which had as its axiom that human beings in fact didn't have skeletons". Ruskin declared that economics rests on positions that are exactly the same. According to Ruskin, these axioms resemble thinking, not that human beings do not have skeletons, but rather that they consist entirely of skeletons. Ruskin wrote that he didn't oppose the truth value of this theory, he merely wrote that he denied that it could be successfully implemented in the world in the state it was in. He took issue with the ideas of "natural laws", "

economic man The term ''Homo economicus'', or economic man, is the portrayal of humans as Agency (philosophy), agents who are consistently Rationality, rational and narrowly Rational egoism, self-interested, and who pursue their subjectively defined ends Opt ...

" and the prevailing notion of "value" and aimed to point out the inconsistencies in the thinking of the economists. As well as critiqued Mill for thinking that ‘the opinions of the public’ was reflected adequately by market prices. Mahatma-Gandhi,_studio,_1931

Ruskin also coined the term '

Illth Illth, coined by John Ruskin in the 1860s, is the reverse of wealth in the sense of ''ill'' being the opposite of ''well''. In Ruskin's view: :Wealth, therefore, is "The possession of the valuable by the valiant"; and in considering it as a powe ...

' to refer to unproductive wealth. Ruskin is not well known as a political thinker today but, when in 1906 a journalist asked the first generation of Labour MPs which book had most inspired them, ''

'' emerged as an undisputed chart-topper.

Criticism

Marx and Engels regarded much of Ruskin's critique as reactionary. His idealisation of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

made them reject him as a "feudal utopian".

Marx

In the 21st century, Karl Marx is probably the most famous critic of political economy, with his three volume magnum opus '' Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' as one of his most famous books. However Marx's companion

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy ''Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy'' is an article by Friedrich Engels, first published in German in 1843 for the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher.https://tilde.town/~xat/rt/pdf/engels_1843_outline_political_economy.pdf The article ...

'', which helped lay down some of the foundation for what Marx was to take further. Marx's critique of political economy encompasses the study and exposition of the mode of production and ideology of bourgeois society, and its critique of real abstraction" that is, the fundamental "economic", i.e., social categories present within what for Marx is the capitalist mode of production, for example abstract labour. In contrast to the classics of political economy, Marx was concerned with lifting the ideological veil of surface phenomena and exposing the norms, axioms, social relations, institutions and so on, that reproduced capital. The central works in Marx's critique of political economy are ''

Grundrisse The ''Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie'' (''Foundations of a Critique of Political Economy'') is an unfinished manuscript by the German philosopher Karl Marx. The series of seven notebooks was rough-drafted by Marx, chiefly for ...

'', ''

A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy ''A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'' (german: Zur Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie) is a book by Karl Marx, first published in 1859. The book is mainly a critique of political economy achieved by critiquing the writings of the ...

'' and ''Das Kapital''. Marx's works are often explicitly named for example: ''A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'', or ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy''. Marx also cited Engels' article ''

Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy ''Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy'' is an article by Friedrich Engels, first published in German in 1843 for the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher.https://tilde.town/~xat/rt/pdf/engels_1843_outline_political_economy.pdf The article ...

'' several times in ''Das Kapital''. However

Trotskyists Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a re ...

and other

Leninists Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishme ...

tend to implicitly or explicitly argue that these works constitute and or contain "economical theories" which can be studied independently. This was also the common understanding of Marx's work on economy that was put forward by

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

orthodoxy. Since this is the case, it remains a matter of controversy whether Marx's critique of political economy is to be understood as a critique of the political economy or, according to the orthodox interpretation another theory of economics. The critique of political economy is considered the most important and central project within Marxism which has led to, and continues to lead to a large number of advanced approaches within and outside academic circles.

Foundational concepts

* Labour and capital are historically specific forms of social relations, and labour is not the source of all wealth. * Labour is the other side of the same coin as capital, labour presupposes capital, and capital presupposes labour. * Money is not in any way something transhistorical or "natural" (which goes for the whole economy as well as the other categories specific to the

mode of production In the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (German: ''Produktionsweise'', "the way of producing") is a specific combination of the: * Productive forces: these include human labour power and means of production (tools, ...

), and gains its value/are constituted due to social relations rather than any inherent qualities. * The individual doesn't exist in some form of vacuum but is rather enmeshed in social relations.

Marx's critique of the quasi-religious and ahistorical methodology of economists

Marx described the view of contemporaneous economists and theologians on social phenomena as similarly unscientific. Marx continued to emphasize the ahistorical thought of the modern economists in the

, where he among other endeavors, critiqued the liberal economist

Mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

. Marx also viewed the viewpoints which implicitly regarded the institutions of modernity as transhistorical as fundamentally deprived of historical understanding. Zentralbibliothek_Zürich_Das_Kapital_Marx_1867

Zentralbibliothek_Zürich_Das_Kapital_Marx_1867

According to the french philosopher

Jacques Rancière Jacques Rancière (; born 10 June 1940) is a French philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII: Vincennes—Saint-Denis. After co-authoring '' ...

, what Marx understood, and what the economists failed to recognise was that the

value-form The value-form or form of value (german: Wertform) is a concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy. Marx's account of the value-form is differently adopted in later forms of Marxism, in the Frankfurt School and in post-Marxism. When so ...

is not something essential, but merely a part of the capitalist mode of production.

On scientifically adequate research

Marx also offered a critique regarding the idea of people being able to conduct scientific research in this domain. Or, as he stated it himself:

On vulgar economists

Marx also used to criticize the false critique of political economy of his contemporaries. Something he did, sometimes even more forcefully, than he critiqued the classical, and hence 'vulgar' economists. He for example rejected

Lasalle's Lasalle & Koch Co. or Lasalle's was a department store in Toledo, Ohio, Toledo, Ohio, with branches in some nearby communities. History Lasalle's traces its beginnings to a store opened in 1865 by Jacob Lasalle and Joseph Epstein, at 51 Summit St ...

' iron and inexorable law' of wages, which he simply regarded as mere phraseology. As well as Proudhon's attempts to do what Hegel did for religion, law, etc., for political economy, as well as regarding what is social as subjective, and what was societal as merely subjective abstractions. In Marx's view, the errors of these authors led the workers' movement astray.

Interpretations of Marx's critique of political economy

Some scholars view Marx's critique as being a critique of

commodity fetishism In Marxist philosophy, the term commodity fetishism describes the economic relationships of production and exchange as being social relationships that exist among things (money and merchandise) and not as relationships that exist among people ...

and the manner in which this concept expresses a criticism of modernity and its modes of

socialisation In sociology, socialization or socialisation (see spelling differences) is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cultur ...

. Other scholars who engage with Marx's critique of political economy affirm the critique might assume a more

Kantian Kantianism is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). The term ''Kantianism'' or ''Kantian'' is sometimes also used to describe contemporary positions in philosophy of mind, ...

sense, which transforms "Marx's work into a foray concerning the imminent

antinomies Antinomy (Greek ἀντί, ''antí'', "against, in opposition to", and νόμος, ''nómos'', "law") refers to a real or apparent mutual incompatibility of two laws. It is a term used in logic and epistemology, particularly in the philosophy of I ...

that lie at the heart of capitalism, where politics and economy intertwine in impossible ways."

Contemporary Marxian

Regarding contemporary Marxian critiques of political economy, these are generally accompanied by a rejection of the more naturalistically influenced readings of Marx, as well as other readings later deemed ("worldview Marxism"), that was popularised as late as toward the end of the 20th century. According to some scholars in this field, contemporary critiques of political economy and contemporary German ''Ökonomiekritik'' have been at least partly neglected in the anglophone world.

Feminist

There has been a growing literature of feminist viewpoints in examinations of the foundations of political economy in recent years. According to economist Julie A. Nelson feminist critiques of economics should start from the premise that "economics, like any science, is

socially constructed Social constructionism is a theory in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory which proposes that certain ideas about physical reality arise from collaborative consensus, instead of pure observation of said reality. The theory ...

." Feminist economists say that social constructs act to privilege male-identified,

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

, and

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to ...

interpretations of economics. They generally incorporate

feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist ...

and frameworks to show how traditional economics communities signal expectations regarding appropriate participants, to the exclusion of outsiders. Such criticisms extend to the theories, methodologies and research areas of economics, in order to show that accounts of economic life are deeply influenced by biased histories, social structures, norms, cultural practices, interpersonal interactions, and politics. Feminist economists often make a critical distinction that masculine bias in economics is primarily a result of

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

, not

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

Differences between critics of economy and critics of economical issues

One may differentiate between those who engage in critique of political economy, which takes on a more

ontological In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

character, where authors criticise the fundamental concepts and social categories which reproduce the economy as an entity. While other authors, which the critics of political economy would consider only to deal with the surface phenomena of "the economy", have a naturalized understanding of these social processes. Hence the epistemological differences between critics of economy and economists can also at times be very large. In the eyes of the critics of political economy, the critics of economic issues merely critique "certain practices" in attempts to implicitly or explicitly 'rescue' the political economy; these authors might for example propose

universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...

or to implement a

planned economy A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, part ...

Others

Contemporary

Sociologists

Orlando Patterson Horace Orlando Patterson (born 5 June 1940) is a Jamaican historical and cultural sociologist known for his work regarding issues of race and slavery in the United States and Jamaica, as well as the sociology of development. He is the John Cowl ...

, John Cowles professor of sociology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

has claimed that economics is a pseudoscience.

Philosophers

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New Y ...

Historians

Moishe Postone Moishe Postone (April 17, 1942 – March 19, 2018) was a Canadian historian and social theorist. He was a professor of history at the University of Chicago, where he was part of the Committee on Jewish Studies. Life and career Postone was bor ...

Historical

Historians

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...

Roman Rozdolsky Roman Osipovich Rosdolsky ( uk, Рома́н О́сипович Роздо́льський ''Roman Osipovič Rozdol's'kyj'') (Lemberg, July 19, 1898 – Detroit, October 20, 1967) was a prominent Ukrainian Marxian scholar, historian and politica ...

Poets

Carl Jonas Love Almqvist Carl Jonas Love Ludvig Almqvist (28 November 1793 – 26 September 1866) was a Swedish author, romantic poet, romantic critic of political economy, realist, composer and social critic. Biography Carl Jonas Love Almqvist was born in Stockholm ...

August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...

Miscellaneous

Paul Lafargue Paul Lafargue (; 15 January 1842 – 25 November 1911) was a Cuban- Haitian revolutionary Marxist socialist, political writer, economist, journalist, literary critic, and activist; he was Karl Marx's son-in-law having married his second dau ...

Notes and references

* * * Johnsdotter S, Carlbom A, editors. ''Goda sanningar: debattklimatet och den kritiska forskningens villkor''. Lund: Nordic Academic Press; 2010. *

Braudel Fernand Braudel (; 24 August 1902 – 27 November 1985) was a French historian and leader of the Annales School. His scholarship focused on three main projects: ''The Mediterranean'' (1923–49, then 1949–66), ''Civilization and Capitalism'' ...

F. ''Kapitalismens dynamik''. ('' La Dynamique du Capitalisme)'' y utg.

Göteborg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has a p ...

: Daidalos; 2001. * Ankarloo D, editor. ''Marx ekonomikritik''. Stockholm: Tidskriftsföreningen Fronesis; 2008. * Eklund K. ''Vår ekonomi: en introduktion till världsekonomin.'' Upplaga 15. Lund: Studentlitteratur; 2020. * Tidskriftsföreningen Fronesis. ''Arbete''. Stockholm: Tidskriftsfören. Fronesis; 2002. * Baudrillard J. ''

The Mirror of Production ''The Mirror of Production'' (french: Le Miroir de la production) is a 1973 book by the French sociologist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard. It is a systematic critique of Marxism. Baudrillard's thesis is that Karl Marx’s theory of historical mat ...

''. Telos Press; 1975. * Marx K. ''Till kritiken av den politiska ekonomin''. y utg. Göteborg: Proletärkultur; 1981.

External links

1995-2004 Conference Papers - Critique Of Political Economy / International Working Group on Value Theory (COPE- IWGVT)

* ttp://crisiscritique.org/political11/CC3_Complete-1.pdf Critique of Political Economy - a 2016 edition of the philosophy journal: crisis and critique* (A lecture regarding Marx's critique of political economy.)
Translated texts from a contemporary German group critical of political economy.
{{Social and political philosophy Criticisms Critique of political economy Philosophy of economics Social philosophy

Ruskin

Criticism

Marx

Foundational concepts

Marx's critique of the quasi-religious and ahistorical methodology of economists

On scientifically adequate research

On vulgar economists

Interpretations of Marx's critique of political economy

Contemporary Marxian

Feminist

Differences between critics of economy and critics of economical issues

Others

Contemporary

Sociologists

Philosophers

Historians

Historical

Historians

Poets

Miscellaneous

See also

Notes and references

Further reading

Articles

General articles

Scholarly articles

Books

Critique of political economy

On Marx critique of political economy

= Neue Marx-Lektüre

= History

= Classic works

Essays

External links