Political Economy

What is Political Economy?

Political economy originally was the term

for studying production, buying and selling,
and their relations with law, custom, and
government.
In contradiction to the theory that land was the source of
all wealth, some political economists proposed the labour
theory of value, according to which labour is the true
source of value. Many political economists also noted the
accelerating development of technology, whose role in
economic and social relations was important.
 What does this mean?
Political Economy is an approach to looking
at the relationships between economics
and culture / society / government at and
the impact that changes in either one affect
the other.
In terms of the theories of thinkers and theorists
such as Marx, the economy is inextricably linked
to every other cultural / social / political activity.
In his base-superstructure theory, the economy
forms the basis for every other aspect of human
culture
 Base / Superstructure
In the social production of their existence, men
inevitably enter into definite relations, which are
independent of their will, namely relations of
production appropriate to a given stage in the
development of their material forces of production.
The totality of these relations of production
constitutes the economic structure of society, the
real foundation, on which arises a legal and political
superstructure and to which correspond definite
forms of social consciousness.
Marx, 1859 from ‘A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy’
 Base / Superstructure
• Base refers to the entirety of productive relationships, not just to a
particular economic position (the working class, for instance)
• The superstructure varies throughout history and is frequently
unevenly developed across different areas of societal activity (in art
and political culture, for instance)
• There is an element of reciprocity between base and superstructure
— an observation that Engels made explicit by claiming that the base
determined the superstructure only “in the last instance.”