Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
When we began work on this project, we intended to write a book that could be used as a text in political economy courses, at least those with more than a passing concern for theoretical frameworks and the structure of arguments. We planned to produce a text that surveyed those frameworks with a critical spirit. As we wrote the book, our task became more complicated. Even those approaches explicitly using the term “political economy” rarely presented fully explicit theories connecting politics to economics. Often an approach presented us with a picture of only economics or politics. We had to draw out the linkages ourselves. Because of this, the term “survey” may not be as accurate a description of the book we wrote as it was of the book we intended to write.
Our task was complicated in a second way. As our work progressed, something of a shared concern with the direction of work in political economy emerged. Those reading the manuscript strongly encouraged us to make that concern an integrating theme, and we have tried to do so. Still, the book remains largely what it was intended to be: a critical survey and elaboration of approaches.
The term “survey” naturally raises questions about coverage. Because so many disparate activities fall under the heading of political economy, no survey can be both coherent and comprehensive. You have to cut somewhere. Our first cut was to exclude approaches without a substantial theoretical grounding.
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- Information
- Theories of Political Economy , pp. vii - viiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992