Can someone please comment on whether or not the following is correct?
The meaning of the expression "political economy", as it is used today, is
not identical with the meaning of the expression "political economy", as it
was used by Marx and his contemporaries. In today's usage, "political
economy" refers to a treatment of economic problems with a strong emphasis
on the political side (the politics of economics), as opposed to a
de-politicized ("economistic") view of economics. At Marx's time the
discipline of economics had not been ravaged by scientism yet. At his time
"political economy" meant the same as "public economy" or "Staatswirtschaft"
or macroeconomics (macroeconomy), as opposed to business administration,
business management or microeconomics. The term "macroeconomics" first
appeared in the 1930's (I believe), so that at Marx's time, anyone who
wanted to say "macroeconomics" or "macroeconomy" said "political economy" (=
economy of the polis). The fact that Marx's view of economics has strong
political and social-psychological components is not due to the "political"
in "political economy", but was rather common in the study of economics of
the 18th and 19th centuries (see also, Adam Smith, Hegel, etc.).
Is this interpretation correct?
Gert Kohler
Oakville, Canada
