The term political economy. Political economy in Europe

29.09.2019

Political economy

P. e. - a science that studies social relations that develop in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods, and the economic laws that govern their development in historically successive socio-economic formations.

Name P. e. comes from the Greek words politikós - state, public and oikonomía - household management (from óikos - house, household and nómos - law). The term "P. e." was introduced by the French mercantilist A. Montchretien in his work “Treatise of Political Economy” (1615).

I. The emergence and development of political economy

The study of economic processes and phenomena originated within the framework of a single and undivided science of antiquity. Formation of P. e. As an independent science, it belongs to the period of formation of Capitalism. The first attempts to comprehend the phenomena of capitalism and justify the economic policy of the state were made by representatives of Mercantilism and , reflecting the interests of the emerging bourgeoisie, primarily the commercial one. Mercantilism studied mainly foreign trade (circulation), seeing in it the main source of wealth; he justified the policy of Protectionism a. However, only the transfer of analysis from the sphere of circulation to the sphere of production and the study of its internal laws marked the beginning of P. e. like science.

At its highest development, bourgeois P. e. achieved in the works of representatives of classical bourgeois political economy (See Classical bourgeois political economy): W. Petty , A. Smith and D. Ricardo (Great Britain), P. Boisguillebert, F. Quesnay (France). They made an attempt to study the objective laws of the development of capitalism, to find out the economic content of goods, value, money, wages, profits and rents. The head of the school of physiocrats, F. Quesnay, in his “Economic Table” (1758), first presented the process of capitalist reproduction as a whole (see Quesnay’s Economic Table). The merit of classical bourgeois P. e. that she started labor theory cost. This theory was most consistently revealed by D. Ricardo, who on its basis showed the opposition of profit and wages, profit and rent. According to V.I. Lenin’s description, classical bourgeois P. e. - one of the sources of Marxism (see. Complete collection cit., 5th ed., vol. 23, p. 40-43). Classic bourgeois P. e. expressed the ideology of the bourgeoisie during the period of the formation of the capitalist mode of production and the undeveloped class struggle of the proletariat (18th century). The critical content of the theory was directed mainly against outdated feudal orders. The establishment of the capitalist mode of production, the exacerbation of its contradictions, the growing antagonism between wage labor and capital, and the transformation of the bourgeoisie from a progressive class into a reactionary class served as the basis for the emergence of vulgar political economy (See Vulgar Political Economy) (30s of the 19th century).

Vulgar P. e. originates in the works of T. R. Malthus (Great Britain), J. B. Say (See Say) and F. Bastiat (France). She refuses to analyze the objective laws of development of the capitalist mode of production. but explores the area of underlying economic phenomena. Vulgar P. e. denies the theory labor cost: Sey declared “three factors of production” to be the sources of value: labor, capital and land. Denying the contradictions of capitalism, vulgar P. e. proclaimed the “harmony” of class interests.

The economic interests and views of small commodity producers in town and countryside in capitalist society are expressed by petty-bourgeois political economy. Its emergence is associated with the works of J. S. L. S. Sismondi (Switzerland) and P. J. Proudhon (France), who criticized the contradictions of the capitalist mode of production. However, they saw the way out of these contradictions not in moving forward, towards socialism, but in returning to outdated, archaic forms of economic life. With the development of capitalism, petty-bourgeois P. e. is becoming more and more utopian and reactionary. In the 2nd half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. in bourgeois P. e. Several schools are emerging. Austrian school (K. Menger, E. Böhm-Bawerk , F. Wieser) put forward the theory of marginal utility of goods, according to which the value of economic goods is determined by the benefit brought by the last (marginal) unit of the supply, and also depends on their rarity (see Marginal utility theory) . The Cambridge School was founded in Great Britain , the founder of which, A. Marshall, eclectically combined the vulgar theories of production costs, supply and demand, productivity and abstinence with the theories of marginal utility and marginal productivity. In the USA, J.B. Clark formulated the theory of marginal productivity and derived the “universal law” of diminishing productivity of factors of production (see Productivity theory) , According to which, as a factor increases, its productivity decreases. This served as a theoretical justification for reducing workers' wages and proof of the need for unemployment. The entry of capitalism into the stage of imperialism and the development of the general crisis of capitalism (See General crisis of capitalism) caused profound changes in bourgeois political economy. During this period, the two main functions of bourgeois political economy began to become more and more apparent: defense of the capitalist system and proof of its inviolability and eternity, in the form of a pronounced apologetics of capitalism, and the development of practical measures for state-monopoly regulation of production. The beginning of a new stage in bourgeois P. e. associated with the works of J. M. Keynes (Great Britain) and, above all, with the appearance of his main op. "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" (1936). Keynes showed the inability of the mechanism of free competition to cope with the productive forces and initiated the development of the concept of regulated capitalism (see regulated capitalism theory). Keynesianism has become the main direction of modern bourgeois economics. In 1913 A. Aftalion (France) and in 1919 J.M. Clark (USA) put forward the “acceleration principle”, according to which every increase or decrease in income, demand or supply causes (or requires) a larger increase or decrease in relative (percentage) terms in “induced” investments (see Accelerator). Subsequently, this principle was developed in more detail by R. Harrod (Great Britain), J. Hicks , P. Samuelson (USA) and included in neo-Keynesian models of economic growth (see Economic growth theory). The economic concept of left Keynesianism is substantiated in the works of J. Robinson (USA). Econometric concepts have become widespread. One of the most common varieties of modern apologetic bourgeois theories are the theories of “transformation of capitalism”, for example the concept of “stages of development of society” by W. Rostow (USA), “unified industrial society” by R. Aron (France), “new industrial society” by J. Galbraith (USA), theory of “post-industrial society” by D. Bell (USA).

Modern bourgeois P. e. is experiencing a deep crisis. One of its manifestations is the emergence of convergence theory (See Convergence theory) , according to which there is a gradual convergence of two systems: socialism and capitalism. The most prominent representatives of this theory, J. Galbraith, J. Tinbergen (Netherlands), R. Aron, refuse to proclaim capitalism as eternal and best social order and call to take all the “good” that exists in the capitalist and socialist systems. At the same time, they turn to purely external similar moments or processes occurring directly in the material and technical sphere (the development of the modern scientific and technological revolution and the growth of large-scale industry, elements of indicative, i.e., recommendatory, planning in capitalist countries, the use of commodity-money relations and their characteristic categories in socialist countries, etc.). Proponents of the theory of convergence ignore the fundamental opposition between socialism and capitalism, the dominance of fundamentally different relations of ownership of the means of production, fundamental differences in social structure society and in order to develop social production, the presence of exploitation of man by man in the capitalist world and its complete elimination under socialism.

The crisis of modern bourgeois P. e. also manifests itself in the appearance in capitalist countries of the so-called. radical P. e., whose representatives reject the traditional dogmas of bourgeois scientists and, in a number of cases, carry out useful practical research. The vitality of petty-bourgeois P. e. during the period of the general crisis of capitalism is explained by the presence in many countries of significant layers of the petty bourgeoisie (See Petty bourgeoisie) (peasants, artisans, small traders, etc.). In developing countries, petty-bourgeois political economy, which exposes colonialism and neocolonialism and the domination of foreign monopolies and supports an independent path of development, can play a certain progressive role.

The proletarian political economy created by K. Marx and F. Engels, while truly scientific, is at the same time consistently party. It inherits and develops the best achievements of previous economic thought. K. Marx and F. Engels carried out the development of P. e. revolutionary coup, the essence of which was the application of a materialistic understanding of history to economic life, the discovery of objective laws of social development and the creation of a theory of surplus value (See Surplus Value) - “... the cornerstone of Marx’s economic theory” (V.I. Lenin, ibid., p. 45). K. Marx was the first to scientifically prove the historical limitations and transient nature of the capitalist mode of production. He discovered and comprehensively studied the laws of motion of capitalism. A brilliant economic analysis of the capitalist system allowed K. Marx to make a discovery of world-historical significance - about the inevitability of the revolutionary collapse of capitalism and the transition of society from capitalism to communism, about the historical mission of the proletariat as the gravedigger of capitalism and the creator of a new, communist society.

Initially Marxist (proletarian) P. e. arose as a science that studies the relations of production of the capitalist mode of production (Pe. in the narrow sense). Gradually, with the accumulation of knowledge about the methods of production that preceded capitalism, industrial economics emerged. V in a broad sense, which studies the relations of production of historically successive modes of production.

A new stage in the development of Marxist political economy. associated with the works of V.I. Lenin, who creatively developed general theory P. e. based on new historical experience of social development. Lenin created the doctrine of monopoly capitalism (imperialism), revealed its economic essence and main features. Based on an analysis of the effect of the uneven economic and political development of capitalism, the law in the era of imperialism Lenin concluded that the victory of socialism was initially possible in several or even in one individual country, and developed it in relation to the new historical era Marxist theory socialist revolution.

Lenin's greatest contribution to economic theory Marxism lies in its creation of the foundations of P. e. socialism. He developed a complete theory about the transition period from capitalism to socialism (See), about the ways to build a socialist economy, about socialist industrialization, about the socialist reorganization of agriculture through the production cooperation of peasant farms (see V.I. Lenin’s Cooperative Plan), about the economic the basis of socialism, the forms and methods of socialist management. Lenin developed the Marxist teaching about the two phases of communist society, about the transition from the first to the second - the highest phase, about the essence and ways of creating the material and technical base of communism (See Material and technical base of communism) , on the formation of communist production relations. Lenin defined the main content of the modern era as the era of humanity’s transition from capitalism to socialism, and foresaw the formation of a world system of socialism (See World system of socialism), which would have a decisive impact on all world development.

Marxist P. e. - creative, constantly developing science. It received its further development in the theoretical activities of the CPSU and fraternal Marxist-Leninist parties, in documents jointly developed by the communist and workers' parties at international meetings. Significant contribution to development current problems P. e. contributed by Marxist scholars Soviet Union and other countries.

Marxist P. e. seriously enriched by research into the general crisis of capitalism and its new, modern stage, analysis of the forms and methods of state-monopoly regulation of the economy, study of the problems of the world capitalist economy, and the currency crisis. Significant works have been written on the economic problems of the Third World countries. The theory of the revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism was further developed, and the analysis of the system was deepened economic laws and categories of socialism, the position of a developed socialist society and the features of its economy has been put forward and substantiated, the scientific foundations are being developed economic policy socialist state, the doctrine of creating the material and technical basis of communism was concretized, the theory of socialist economic integration was substantiated and successfully developed.

II. Subject and method of Marxist political economy

P. e. - one of the components of Marxism-Leninism (together with philosophy and scientific communism). V.I. Lenin wrote that “the most profound, comprehensive and detailed confirmation and application of Marx’s theory is his economic teaching” (ibid., vol. 26, p. 60).

The subject of study is Marxist (proletarian) political economy. are Industrial relations , characteristic of various, historically successive methods of production (See Method of Production). The theoretical expression of objectively existing relations of production are economic categories (See Economic category). The most general, recurring, internal cause-and-effect relationships of economic phenomena and processes are expressed in economic laws (See Economic laws). In the system of production relations, relations of ownership of the means of production are identified as the basis of all other economic relations. Industrial relations are studied by P. e. in organic unity with the productive forces that determine them (See Productive forces) and the superstructure of the corresponding society. With the development of social production and the complication of economic relations, the subject of industrial economics expands. IN modern conditions P. e. cannot be limited to the study of production relations only within the framework of one or another mode of production. Deepening of the global division of labor, development of economic and political relations between countries of different socio-economic systems, economic competition between socialism and capitalism, expanding international economic cooperation - all this makes it necessary to develop the economic problems of the world economy. These include: ways and forms of influence of world socialism on the development of the non-socialist part of the world, the nature of economic relations between countries of different systems and prospects for their development, characteristics of the structure and social nature of economic relations and economic laws operating in the world economy. Here lies one of the main directions of the further creative development of Marxist-Leninist poetry.

Identification of production relations as a subject of P. e. - the greatest merit of Marxism. Bourgeois P. e. I couldn't rise to that level. She studied isolated processes of production, distribution, exchange and consumption, often replacing the analysis of economic relations with the study of the technical side of social production, legal institutions and psychological factors.

Marxism also created a truly scientific method of knowledge - the method of materialist dialectics (see Dialectical materialism) and applied it to the study of the production relations of society. Dialectical materialism sees the only criterion of truth in the correspondence of the conclusions obtained by science to objective reality. This determines creative nature Marxist P. e. In the process of learning P. e. takes a specific economic phenomenon as the initial one and, with the help of scientific abstraction, cuts off everything secondary, random, everything that characterizes its external signs, and step by step reveals the essence of economic processes. In the process of further movement of scientific thought, an ascent from the abstract to the concrete, from simple to complex occurs, a system of economic categories and laws is presented and analyzed. The method of scientific abstraction requires the study of economic relations in their most developed form, that is, when they reach the highest degree of maturity, and at the same time assumes that they are considered in a state of movement, development, and not in a frozen form.

Method P. e. uses general philosophical techniques scientific knowledge: analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, unity of logical and historical approaches.

The Marxist dialectical method requires the unity of qualitative and quantitative analysis of economic processes, in which primacy remains with qualitative, socio-economic analysis. The consistent application of the dialectical method also involves enriching the research process with modern scientific achievements (system analysis, the use of economic and mathematical models, etc.).

P. e. as a science it has a class, party character, for it studies relations of production that are closely related to the economic interests of classes (the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie). The coincidence of the interests of the working class with the interests of the majority of the population and their correspondence to the needs of the progressive development of the productive forces allows Marxist political economy. combine partisanship, direct and open defense of the interests of the proletariat with scientific objectivity. P. e. - an ideological weapon in the hands of the working class in the struggle to overthrow capitalism and build a communist society.

III. Political economy of pre-capitalist formations

Exploring the capitalist mode of production and revealing its historically transitory nature, Marx and Engels, on the basis of the knowledge accumulated by science, in particular the works of L. G. Morgan (USA), laid the foundation for economic economics. pre-capitalist formations. These issues are addressed in the work of K. Marx “Forms preceding the capitalist mode of production”, which is part of his economic manuscripts of 1858-59, and in particular the work of F. Engels “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State”. Important contribution to P. e. pre-capitalist formations were introduced by V.I. Lenin (work “The Development of Capitalism in Russia”).

P. e. pre-capitalist formations includes P. e. primitive communal, slave and feudal systems. She studies first historical process the emergence and development of production and exchange, private property and classes, necessary and surplus product, explores the economic laws governing the development of production, distribution of exchange and consumption at these historical stages of development of human society, shows the decisive role of ownership of the means of production (and the worker) in industrial relations system. Such an analysis reveals the historical nature of economic categories and laws, in particular the historical nature of the emergence and existence of private property.

Under the primitive communal system (See Primitive communal system), on the basis of the primitive development of productive forces, there was public (tribal, tribal) ownership of the means of production and equal distribution. With the improvement of tools and the accumulation of labor skills and experience of the worker, as well as with the development of societies. The division of labor gradually increased labor productivity, at first sporadically, and then regularly a surplus product appeared. The decomposition of the primitive communal system began, private property appeared, society split into antagonistic classes, the State arose as an apparatus of coercion, oppression and violence in the hands of the ruling class.

The basis of production relations under the slave-owning system (See Slave-owning system) is formed by the slave-owning form of ownership of the means of production and full ownership of the worker - slave. The connection of the means of production with the labor force is carried out on the basis of non-economic coercion (See Non-economic coercion). The production of surplus product through the exploitation of a slave is regular. The entire surplus product, as well as a significant part of what is necessary, is appropriated free of charge by the slave-owning class. The gradual improvement of the tools of labor increasingly came into conflict with the slave-owning form of ownership, with the complete disinterest of the worker in the results of his labor. During the period of disintegration of the slave system, transitional type farms arise in which the worker, remaining the property of his owner, gains independence in the use of the means of production. Feudal dependence is replacing slavery.

The surplus value created by the labor of wage workers is distributed among various groups of capitalists and takes the form of profit (entrepreneurial income), trading profit and loan interest. The specific form of surplus value in agriculture is land rent, in the mining industry - mining rent.

The capitalist mode of production leads to a significant increase in productive forces based on the use of machinery, the size of enterprises grows, and the social division of labor deepens. The growth of socialization of production and the development of productive forces is the historical mission of capitalism. At the same time, the dominance of private capitalist ownership of the means of production at a certain stage becomes an obstacle to the further development of productive forces. The main contradiction of capitalism is deepening - between the social nature of production and the private capitalist form of appropriation. Objective laws of development require the resolution of this contradiction: the replacement of the capitalist mode of production with a communist one, based on public ownership of the means of production. At the same time, within the framework of the bourgeois system, a force is growing that is capable of carrying out this replacement - the working class.

In the 2nd decade of the 20th century. In connection with the First World War of 1914-18 and the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, a general crisis of capitalism arises, covering the capitalist system as a whole, its economy, politics, and ideology. It reflects the further growth of the contradictions of capitalism, the process of gradual falling away from the world capitalist system of more and more countries, the formation and growth of the world system of socialism. In the era of the general crisis of capitalism, the colonial system of imperialism is collapsing.

The current stage in the development of the capitalist mode of production is characterized by the growth of state-monopoly capitalism (See State-monopoly capitalism) , combining the power of the state with the power of monopolies. State-monopoly regulation of the economy, its forecasting and programming are developing. State-monopoly capitalism, being a new stage in the socialization of production, further aggravates the main contradiction of capitalism. Before Marxist scientists developing the theory of P. e. modern capitalism, there are tasks associated with a deep analysis of new phenomena and processes in the development of the economy of modern capitalism, occurring, in particular, under the influence of the modern scientific and technological revolution, with the study of the mechanism of influence of the bourgeois state on the processes of social reproduction and modification of the economic cycle, price movements , inflation and currency relations.

V. Political economy of socialism

P. e. socialism - part of P. e. the communist mode of production as a whole. It studies the production relations of a mixed economy in the transition period from capitalism to socialism (See Transition period from capitalism to socialism) , reveals the patterns of development of social production inherent in the first phase of the communist mode of production (the system of socialist production relations, the operation of economic laws, their use in the practice of planned management of the national economy), and also studies the features of their manifestation at certain stages of the development of socialism itself. The construction in the USSR of a developed socialist society, characterized by a high degree of maturity of the material and technical base and the system of industrial relations, creates conditions for the most complete and sequential study and taking advantage of socialism. The maturity of socialist production relations, their achievement of the highest stage of development, is an important prerequisite for further in-depth analysis of their essence and forms of manifestation.

The main object of study of P. e. socialism are the production relations of socialism and, above all, the underlying social socialist ownership of the means of production, which characterizes the method of appropriating material and spiritual benefits in the interests of the working masses. In the USSR and other socialist countries, public socialist property exists in two forms - state and cooperative.

The dominance of public socialist property and the formation on its basis of united national interests determine the direction of development of socialist production - its subordination to the interests of ever more fully satisfying the material and spiritual needs of the people, the comprehensive development of all members of society. This finds expression in the basic economic law of socialism (See Basic Economic Law of Socialism).

Social ownership of the means of production also determines the emergence and operation of the law of planned, proportional development of the national economy, which characterizes the possibility and necessity of coordinated activity of society, the anticipation of the results of this activity, the planned management of social production, including the conscious development of goals of economic development and ways to achieve them.

P. e. socialism studies the peculiarities of the operation of economic laws under socialism that are characteristic of all or a number of socio-economic formations: saving time, law, increasing needs, law, accelerated (predominant) growth of production of means of production, law (See priority growth of production of means of production, law).

An important place in P. e. Socialism is concerned with the study of commodity-money relations and the economic laws inherent in them (the law of value, the laws of monetary circulation, etc.). Commodity-money relations under the conditions of the first phase of communism have a new, socialist content. They are systematically used by the socialist state at all stages and levels of socialist expanded reproduction, both within the framework national economy each country, and in economic relations between countries of the world system of socialism. The systematic use of categories of commodity production is the basis of economic calculation.

P. e. socialism studies the categories and laws inherent in social reproduction as a whole, as well as its individual spheres: production, distribution, exchange and consumption. Particular attention at the present stage of socialist construction is paid to the analysis of the relationship between two divisions of social production, the relationship between extensive and intensive factors of economic growth, the problems of increasing the efficiency of production and the entire economy as a whole based on accelerating the pace of scientific and technological progress, improving the organization of production and improving the management and planning of everything economic mechanism. P. e. socialism reveals the socio-economic aspects of the modern scientific and technological revolution under socialism.

Planned management of the national economy under socialism is based on the knowledge and use of a system of objective economic laws, which ensures the organic unity of theory and practice, the development of the scientific foundations of the economic policy of the party and the state.

P. e. socialism studies the system of planned management of the socialist economy, a system in which the directive tasks of planning bodies and economic levers of influence on production (price, credit, wages, profit, etc.) are organically combined. A comprehensive study of the management of social production is carried out in close cooperation with representatives of economic and other sciences (law, sociology, etc.).

With the establishment of socialist property, the state turns into a body that systematically manages the development of the national economy. P. e. socialism studies the economic role and functions of the state, forms and methods of socialist management.

The formation of a world socialist economy brings to life a new sphere of production relations - international socialist economic relations. The study of these relations and the laws inherent to them, the process of internationalization of production, and socialist economic integration significantly enriches pedagogical economics. socialism.

Along with P. e. an extensive system of economic sciences is developing: general economics (national economic planning, economic management theory, statistics, etc.), functional (finance and credit, labor economics, pricing, etc.) and sectoral (industrial economics, agricultural economics, transport economics, etc. .). P. e. forms the theoretical and methodological foundation of the entire system of economic sciences. The successful development of economic sciences is possible only when they are based on theoretical foundations and the conclusions of the Marxist-Leninist political era. In turn, P. e. enriched with factual material that accumulates in the course of the development of specific economic sciences.

The development of the scientific foundations of economic policy and planned management of the national economy is the practical function of economic economics. socialism. This development is the more successful the deeper science penetrates into the essence of socialist production relations and laws and the more fully it reveals their system. Along with this, P. e. socialism performs important ideological functions - it serves as one of the main means of forming a communist worldview, equips workers with knowledge of the fundamental differences and advantages of the socialist economic system over the capitalist one, provides a clear orientation in the events of the economic and political life and inspires confidence in the inevitable triumph of communism. Study of P. e. socialism occupies a central place in the system economic education workers. Practical and ideological functions of P. e. are in organic unity, mutually complementing each other.

Considering the important and ever-increasing role of P. e. in the construction of socialism and communism, the CPSU is constantly concerned about its further development. The Party focuses the attention of economists on developing the most effective forms and methods of using objective economic laws in the practice of planned management of the national economy, on improving long-term long-term planning, the problems of accelerating scientific and technological progress, intensifying and comprehensively increasing the efficiency of social production, as well as critical issues development of socialist economic integration.

Lit.: Marx K., Towards a critique of political economy, Marx K. and Engels F., Works, 2nd ed., vol. 13; his own. Capital, vol. 1-3, ibid., vol. 23, 24, 25; his, Theory of Surplus Value, (IV volume of “Capital”), ibid., vol. 26; his own. Criticism of the Gotha Program, ibid., vol. 191; Engels F., Origin of the family, private property and the state, ibid., vol. 21; his, Anti-Dühring, ibid., vol. 20; Lenin V.I., Regarding the so-called question of markets, Complete. collection cit., 5th ed., vol. 1; him, Development of capitalism in Russia, ibid., vol. 3; his own. Karl Marx, ibid., vol. 26; his own. Imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism, ibid., vol. 27; his own. State and Revolution, ibid., vol. 33; him, Immediate tasks of Soviet power, ibid., vol. 36; his own. The Great Initiative, ibid., vol. 39; his own. Economics and politics in the era of the dictatorship of the proletariat, ibid.; him, On a unified economic plan, ibid., vol. 42; him, On the food tax, ibid., vol. 43; him, On the significance of gold now and after the complete victory of socialism, ibid., vol. 44; him, On Cooperation, ibid., vol. 45.

Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, M., 1974; Materials of the XXIV Congress of the CPSU, M., 1971; Political economy. Textbook, M., 1954; Political Economy, Part 1 - The Capitalist Mode of Production, ed. A. M. Rumyantseva, M., 1973; Political economy of socialism. Uch. allowance, 2nd ed., M., 1971; Political economy of modern monopoly capitalism, vol. 1-2, M., 1970; Course of Political Economy, 2nd ed., ed. N. A. Tsagolov, vol. 1-2, M., 1970; Cherkovets V.N., On the methodological principles of political economy as a scientific system, M., 1965; Rumyantsev A.M., On the categories and laws of political economy of the communist formation, 2nd ed., M., 1966; Pagikov A.I., Economic problems of socialism, M., 1970; Abalkin L.I., Political economy and economic policy, M., 1970; his, Economic laws of socialism, M., 1971; Ostrovityanov K.V., Selected works, vol. 1-Political economy of pre-socialist formations, vol. 2-Issues of the political economy of socialism, M., 1972-73.

Political science. Dictionary. - POLITICAL ECONOMY, a science that studies the foundations of social production, the laws of its functioning and development, problems of production, distribution, exchange, consumption of material goods at various stages of development of society. Term... ... Modern encyclopedia

Political economy appeared at the dawn of our civilization many years before economists could derive and explain this term. Initially, it existed as a system of housekeeping. Competent and rational distribution of labor and resources leads to well-being, saves from hunger and want, which was necessary for the people of antiquity. However, with the advent of capitalist society, farming began to be considered not at the level of families, but at the level of states. The goal of the correct organization of labor and the circulation of human-produced goods is the enrichment of the country.

Author of the term

Authorship of the phrase " political economy"belongs to Antoine de Montchretien, who wrote the work "Treatise of Political Economy". It is noteworthy that Montchretien himself was not an economist and did not write a single book on economics either before or after the treatise. He was a famous playwright, a good expert on antiquity, his work is more of a recommendation manual than a scientific work.

In 1911, the Encyclopedia Britannica conducted a study in which scientists studied how independent the treatise was. A group of experts concluded that it was based on the works of Jean Bodin. Montchretien dedicated his “Treatise of Political Economy” to the august persons of France – King Louis Louis XIII and Anne de Medici.

The importance of capitalist society in political economy

Before the advent of capitalist society, economic relations manifested themselves purely as volitional relations. When capitalist society was created, economic relations began to exist as an independent and independent concept. The agricultural industry faded into the background, and the manufacturing industry began to dominate. An industrial society is characterized by the fact that any goods are the result of human labor, and they are produced not within the framework of one industry, but several, and very different in their type of activity and significance. This became the reason for the emergence of a clear delineation and division of labor resources and led to the emergence and widespread development of economic relations.

Due to the fact that goods are produced in a variety of production cells, they need to circulate fully between these cells. The circulation must be strictly controlled and coordinated for normal social production.

The place for the exchange of products is the market, therefore capitalist society is a synthesis of industrial and market society. It is safe to say that it was the capitalist economy that gave rise to market economy and its prosperity in society.

Mercantilism and its features

The author of the term “political economy,” Montchretien, made it very clear that he was considering economic activity at the level of the state, not the family. The emergence of capitalism led to the formation of a single economic complex within a particular country. The author of the treatise and his economist followers were the founders of mercantilism. Its essence was to find an answer to one question: how to manage the country’s economy in such a way as to make it rich? After all, such important indicators as military power and place in the international arena depend on the well-being of the state. The imperfection of mercantilism consisted in identifying wealth exclusively with three goods:

gold;
silver;
money.

The task of the specialists was exclusively to preserve these assets within the country and increase them. In the 16th century, at the dawn of political economy, trade was considered the greatest prospect for enriching the treasury. Profits could be made by purchasing goods at a lower price and selling them at a higher price. People were designated only as buyers or sellers; they did not take an active part in the formation of the political economy and its development.

However, by focusing only on foreign trade, economists were faced with the problem of unequal exchange of goods. The question also arose of how value is formed and changes; Aristotle was looking for an answer to it in his time. The very concept of pricing and changes in value was derived at the time when classical political economy was emerging.

Forming the Foundations

William Petty, one of the most prominent representatives of the emerging classical school, discovered the law of value. He began to fundamentally study the factors that influence the formation of value and its change in any direction. These studies led the scientist to discover the existence of the law of value. He was the first to propose a theory about the inextricable dependence of the price of a product on the amount of labor spent on its production. Thanks to these conclusions, the foundations of the labor theory of value emerged.

Also, Petty, at the same time as Pierre Lepezan de Boisguillebert, discovered that the enrichment of a country depends not only on the intensity of foreign trade, but also on production activity. The sphere of circulation ceased to occupy a dominant place in the market and was replaced by the sphere of production; this was an aid for the founding and development of bourgeois political economy.

The classical school of political economy already had knowledge about the exchange of products of labor between people. However, the circulation of these products was preceded by distribution among all members of society. It was for this reason that Petty discarded the theory of trade and put in its place rent, on the basis of which industrial profit and interest were formed.

School of Physiocrats

The first stage of the formation of political economy ended with the emergence of the school of physiocrats. WITH light hand Boisguillebert adopted the theory that land ownership is the fundamental basis of production. This great economist only managed to come close to the law of value, which is why capitalist relations were not sufficiently developed in France.

Physiocrats identified agriculture with production itself and believed that it was precisely this that could produce a net or surplus product.

F. Quesnay, a representative of this school, coined the concept of reproduction and identified three main social castes:

productive - land owners who produce a product not only for their own food, but are also producers of a pure product;
owners - landowners who receive a clean product;
barren - workers employed in the field of handicraft or trade, who had no relation to the ownership or cultivation of land; according to Quesnay, they received wages exclusively from the two previous castes.

Turgot had a slightly different division; initially he distinguished only two classes: landowners or the productive class, and the contented class (artisans). However, the transfer of land into private ownership made some adjustments to the classification. People who were left without land began to work for those who were able to take possession of the fields in due time. In fact, another class of land owners appeared who were not directly involved in their cultivation (unoccupied).

Land owners were given the opportunity not to work on their own, but to hire workers, as there was a demand for work of this kind. In the most economically developed countries ah, the plots were rented out. This led to the emergence of the following castes:

manufacturing entrepreneurs;
owner-manufacturers;
ordinary hired workers.

Achievements of the British school

At the second stage of its formation and development, classical political economy, whose representatives no longer turned to commodity circulation, but placed production in the central place, comes to the discovery of the existence of economic laws. These laws depend little on the desires and actions of man; they are similar to the laws of nature, since they are characterized by spontaneity.

Adam Smith and David Ricardo became the brightest representatives of this period of formation. Scientists became developers and researchers of the labor theory of value.

Smith became famous in the world thanks to his “Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” and Ricardo wrote “Principles of Political Economy and Taxation.”

The final stage or path to socialism

At the beginning of the 19th century, most economically developed countries experienced an industrial revolution, the impact of which on the economy was simply colossal. This time is considered the third stage in the development of political economy; it is characterized by additions, rethinking and enrichment of Smith's basic theories with new ideas. Capitalism at this time was developing very rapidly, so specialists had the opportunity to review the arguments about market law previously presented by their colleagues, supplement them and refine them.

Dawn of socialism

The fourth stage of the formation and development of political economy occurred in the second half of XIX century. Prominent representatives of this time were Karl Marx and J. S. Mil. Marxist political economy was based on the fact that price formation is more effective in conditions of fierce competition.

It is worth noting that both Marx and Mil showed special interest and sympathy specifically for representatives of the working class. In particular, Marx was confident that if we intensify the exploitation of labor by capital, this will certainly lead to class struggle, which will mark the beginning of the withering away of the state and the emergence of the economy of a classless society.

Marx also credits the incitement to revolution. He substantiated the labor theory of value and brought it to its logical conclusion. According to him, the basis of the value of a product is human labor, therefore, workers should rightfully own all the benefits of society that they created with this labor. However, capitalists cannot voluntarily give up all their means of production. It is for this reason that the workers must seize them themselves by carrying out a revolution.

The term “political economy” has undergone many transformations since its inception. It immediately denoted a narrow concept - housekeeping. With the advent of capitalism, theories about political economy began to develop and modernize; they changed depending on the political situation in the world and in specific countries and continue to change now. The development of society certainly leads to changes and additions to the basic postulates created in the most popular classical schools.

Political economy.

I. The emergence and development of political economy

The study of economic processes and phenomena originated within the framework of a single and undivided science of antiquity. Formation of P. e. as an independent science relates to the period of formation of capitalism. The first attempts to comprehend the phenomena of capitalism and substantiate the economic policy of the state were made by representatives of mercantilism, reflecting the interests of the emerging bourgeoisie, primarily the commercial one. Mercantilism studied mainly foreign trade (circulation), seeing in it the main source of wealth; they justified the policy of protectionism. However, only the transfer of analysis from the sphere of circulation to the sphere of production and the study of its internal laws marked the beginning of P. e. like science.

At its highest development, bourgeois P. e. achieved in the works of representatives of classical bourgeois political economy: W. Petty, A. Smith and D. Ricardo (Great Britain), P. Boisguillebert, F. Quesnay (France). They made an attempt to study the objective laws of the development of capitalism, to find out the economic content of goods, value, money, wages, profit and rent. The head of the school of physiocrats, F. Quesnay, in his “Economic Table” (1758), first presented the process of capitalist reproduction as a whole (see Quesnay’s Economic Table). The merit of classical bourgeois P. e. in that it laid the foundation for the labor theory of value. This theory was most consistently revealed by D. Ricardo, who on its basis showed the opposition of profit and wages, profit and rent. According to V.I. Lenin’s description, classical bourgeois P. e. - one of the sources of Marxism (see Complete collection of works, 5th ed., vol. 23, pp. 40-43). Classic bourgeois P. e. expressed the ideology of the bourgeoisie during the period of the formation of the capitalist mode of production and the undeveloped class struggle of the proletariat (18th century). The critical content of the theory was directed mainly against outdated feudal orders. The establishment of the capitalist mode of production, the exacerbation of its contradictions, the growing antagonism between wage labor and capital, the transformation of the bourgeoisie from a progressive class into a reactionary one served as the basis for the emergence of vulgar political economy (30s of the 19th century).

Vulgar P. e. originates in the works of T. R. Malthus (Great Britain), J. B. Say and F. Bastiat (France). She refuses to analyze the objective laws of development of the capitalist mode of production. but explores the area of underlying economic phenomena. Vulgar P. e. denies the theory of labor value: Sey declared “three factors of production” to be the sources of value: labor, capital and land. Denying the contradictions of capitalism, vulgar P. e. proclaimed the “harmony” of class interests.

The economic interests and views of small commodity producers in the city and countryside of capitalist society are expressed by petty-bourgeois political economy. Its emergence is associated with the works of J. S. L. S. Sismondi (Switzerland) and P. J. Proudhon (France), who criticized the contradictions of the capitalist mode of production. However, they saw the way out of these contradictions not in moving forward, towards socialism, but in returning to outdated, archaic forms of economic life. With the development of capitalism, petty-bourgeois P. e. is becoming more and more utopian and reactionary. In the 2nd half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. in bourgeois P. e. Several schools are emerging. The Austrian school (K. Menger, E. Böhm-Bawerk, F. Wieser) put forward the theory of marginal utility of goods, according to which the value of economic goods is determined by the benefit brought by the last (marginal) unit of the supply, and also depends on their rarity ( see marginal utility theory) . In Great Britain, the Cambridge school emerged, whose founder, A. Marshall, eclectically combined the vulgar theories of production costs, supply and demand, productivity and abstinence with the theories of marginal utility and marginal productivity. In the USA, J.B. Clark formulated the theory of marginal productivity and derived the “universal law” of diminishing productivity of factors of production (see Productivity theory) , According to which, as a factor increases, its productivity decreases. This served as a theoretical justification for reducing workers' wages and proof of the need for unemployment. The entry of capitalism into the stage of imperialism and the development of the general crisis of capitalism caused profound changes in bourgeois political economy. During this period, the two main functions of bourgeois political economy began to become more and more apparent: defense of the capitalist system and proof of its inviolability and eternity, in the form of a pronounced apologetics of capitalism, and the development of practical measures for state-monopoly regulation of production. The beginning of a new stage in bourgeois P. e. associated with the works of J.M. Keynes (Great Britain) and, above all, with the appearance of his main opus. "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" (1936). Keynes showed the inability of the mechanism of free competition to cope with the productive forces and initiated the development of the concept of regulated capitalism (see regulated capitalism theory) . Keynesianism has become the main direction of modern bourgeois economics. In 1913 A. Aftalion (France) and in 1919 J. M. Clark (USA) put forward the “acceleration principle”, according to which every increase or decrease in income, demand or supply causes (or requires) a larger increase in relative (percentage) terms or reduction of “induced” investments (see Accelerator) . Subsequently, this principle was developed in more detail by R. Harrod (Great Britain), J. Hicks, P. Samuelson (USA) and included in neo-Keynesian models of economic growth (see Economic growth theory) . The economic concept of left Keynesianism is substantiated in the works of J. Robinson (USA). Econometric concepts have become widespread. One of the most common varieties of modern apologetic bourgeois theories are the theories of “transformation of capitalism”, for example the concept of “stages of development of society” by W. Rostow (USA), “unified industrial society” by R. Aron (France), “new industrial society” by J. Galbraith (USA), theory of “post-industrial society” by D. Bell (USA).

Modern bourgeois P. e. is experiencing a deep crisis. One of its manifestations is the emergence of convergence theory, according to which there is a gradual rapprochement of two systems: socialism and capitalism. The most prominent representatives of this theory, J. Galbraith, J. Tinbergen (Netherlands), and R. Aron, refuse to proclaim capitalism as the eternal and best social system and call for taking everything “good” that exists in the capitalist and socialist systems. At the same time, they turn to purely external similar moments or processes occurring directly in the material and technical sphere (the development of the modern scientific and technological revolution and the growth of large-scale industry, elements of indicative, i.e., recommendatory, planning in capitalist countries, the use of commodity-money relations and their characteristic categories in socialist countries, etc.). Proponents of the theory of convergence ignore the fundamental opposition between socialism and capitalism, the dominance of fundamentally different relations of ownership of the means of production, fundamental differences in the social structure of society and in the development of social production, the presence of exploitation of man by man in the capitalist world and its complete elimination under socialism.

The crisis of modern bourgeois P. e. also manifests itself in the appearance in capitalist countries of the so-called. radical P. e., whose representatives reject the traditional dogmas of bourgeois scientists and, in a number of cases, carry out useful practical research. The vitality of petty-bourgeois P. e. during the period of the general crisis of capitalism is explained by the presence in many countries of significant layers of the petty bourgeoisie (peasants, artisans, small traders, etc.). In developing countries, petty-bourgeois political economy, which exposes colonialism and neocolonialism and the domination of foreign monopolies and supports an independent path of development, can play a certain progressive role.

The proletarian political economy created by K. Marx and F. Engels, while truly scientific, is at the same time consistently party. It inherits and develops the best achievements of previous economic thought. K. Marx and F. Engels carried out the development of P. e. a revolutionary revolution, the essence of which was the application of a materialist understanding of history to economic life, the discovery of objective laws of social development and the creation of a theory of surplus value - “... the cornerstone of Marx’s economic theory” (V.I. Lenin, ibid., p. 45). K. Marx was the first to scientifically prove the historical limitations and transient nature of the capitalist mode of production. He discovered and comprehensively studied the laws of motion of capitalism. A brilliant economic analysis of the capitalist system allowed K. Marx to make a discovery of world-historical significance - about the inevitability of the revolutionary collapse of capitalism and the transition of society from capitalism to communism, about the historical mission of the proletariat as the gravedigger of capitalism and the creator of a new, communist society.

Initially Marxist (proletarian) P. e. arose as a science that studies the relations of production of the capitalist mode of production (Pe. in the narrow sense). Gradually, with the accumulation of knowledge about the methods of production that preceded capitalism, industrial economics emerged. in a broad sense, studying the relations of production of historically successive modes of production.

A new stage in the development of Marxist political economy. associated with the works of V. I. Lenin, who creatively developed the general theory of P. e. based on new historical experience of social development. Lenin created the doctrine of monopoly capitalism (imperialism), revealed its economic essence and main features. Based on an analysis of the effect of the uneven economic and political development of capitalism of law in the era of imperialism, Lenin concluded that the victory of socialism was initially possible in several or even in one individual country, and developed the Marxist theory of socialist revolution in relation to the new historical era.

Lenin's greatest contribution to the economic theory of Marxism lies in his creation of the foundations of economic economics. socialism. He developed a complete theory about the transition period from capitalism to socialism, about the ways to build a socialist economy, about socialist industrialization, about the socialist reorganization of agriculture through the production cooperation of peasant farms (see V.I. Lenin’s Cooperative Plan), about the economic basis of socialism, about forms and methods of socialist management. Lenin developed the Marxist teaching about the two phases of communist society, about the transition from the first to the second - the highest phase, about the essence and ways of creating the material and technical base of communism, about the formation of communist production relations. Lenin defined the main content of the modern era as the era of humanity's transition from capitalism to socialism, and foresaw the formation of a world system of socialism, which would have a decisive impact on all world development.

Marxist P. e. - creative, constantly developing science. It received its further development in the theoretical activities of the CPSU and fraternal Marxist-Leninist parties, in documents jointly developed by the communist and workers' parties at international meetings. Significant contribution to the development of current problems of P. e. contributed by Marxist scientists of the Soviet Union and other countries.

Marxist P. e. seriously enriched by research into the general crisis of capitalism and its new, modern stage, analysis of the forms and methods of state-monopoly regulation of the economy, study of the problems of the world capitalist economy, and the currency crisis. Significant works have been written on the economic problems of the Third World countries. The theory of the revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism was further developed, the analysis of the system of economic laws and categories of socialism was deepened, the position of a developed socialist society and the peculiarities of its economy was put forward and substantiated, the scientific foundations of the economic policy of a socialist state were developed, the doctrine of creating a material and technical base was concretized communism, the theory of socialist economic integration is substantiated and successfully developed.

II. Subject and method of Marxist political economy

The subject of study is Marxist (proletarian) political economy. are the production relations inherent in different, historically successive modes of production. Economic categories are the theoretical expression of objectively existing relations of production. The most general, repeating, internal cause-and-effect relationships of economic phenomena and processes are expressed in economic laws. In the system of production relations, relations of ownership of the means of production are identified as the basis of all other economic relations. Industrial relations are studied by P. e. in organic unity with the productive forces that determine them and the superstructure of the corresponding society. With the development of social production and the complication of economic relations, the subject of industrial economics expands. In modern conditions P. e. cannot be limited to the study of production relations only within the framework of one or another mode of production. The deepening of the global division of labor, the development of economic and political relations between countries of different socio-economic systems, economic competition between socialism and capitalism, expanding international economic cooperation - all this makes it necessary to develop the economic problems of the world economy. These include: ways and forms of influence of world socialism on the development of the non-socialist part of the world, the nature of economic relations between countries of different systems and prospects for their development, characteristics of the structure and social nature of economic relations and economic laws operating in the world economy. Here lies one of the main directions of the further creative development of Marxist-Leninist poetry.

Marxism also created a truly scientific method of knowledge - the method of materialist dialectics (see Dialectical materialism) and applied it to the study of the production relations of society. Dialectical materialism sees the only criterion of truth in the correspondence of the conclusions obtained by science to objective reality. This determines the creative nature of Marxist philosophy. In the process of learning P. e. takes a specific economic phenomenon as the initial one and, with the help of scientific abstraction, cuts off everything secondary, random, everything that characterizes its external signs, and step by step reveals the essence of economic processes. In the process of further movement of scientific thought, an ascent from the abstract to the concrete, from simple to complex occurs, a system of economic categories and laws is presented and analyzed. The method of scientific abstraction requires the study of economic relations in their most developed form, that is, when they reach the highest degree of maturity, and at the same time assumes that they are considered in a state of movement, development, and not in a frozen form.

Method P. e. uses general philosophical methods of scientific knowledge: analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, the unity of logical and historical approaches.

III. Political economy of pre-capitalist formations

Exploring the capitalist mode of production and revealing its historically transitory nature, Marx and Engels, on the basis of the knowledge accumulated by science, in particular the works of L. G. Morgan (USA), laid the foundation for economic economics. pre-capitalist formations. These issues are addressed in the work of K. Marx, “Forms Preceding the Capitalist Mode of Production,” which is part of his economic manuscripts of 1858-59, and especially in the work of F. Engels, “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.” An important contribution to economics. pre-capitalist formations were introduced by V.I. Lenin (work “The Development of Capitalism in Russia”).

P. e. pre-capitalist formations includes P. e. primitive communal, slave and feudal systems. It studies, first of all, the historical process of the emergence and development of production and exchange, private property and classes, necessary and surplus product, explores the economic laws governing the development of production, distribution of exchange and consumption at these historical stages of development of human society, shows the decisive role of ownership of the means of production (and the employee) in the system of industrial relations. Such an analysis reveals the historical nature of economic categories and laws, in particular the historical nature of the emergence and existence of private property.

Under the primitive communal system, on the basis of the primitive development of productive forces, there was public (tribal, tribal) ownership of the means of production and equal distribution. With the improvement of tools and the accumulation of labor skills and experience of the worker, as well as with the development of societies. The division of labor gradually increased labor productivity, at first sporadically, and then regularly a surplus product appeared. The decomposition of the primitive communal system began, private property appeared, society split into antagonistic classes, the state arose as an apparatus of coercion, oppression and violence in the hands of the ruling class.

The basis of production relations under the slave-owning system is formed by the slave-owning form of ownership of the means of production and full ownership of the worker - slave. The connection of the means of production with the labor force is carried out on the basis of non-economic coercion. the production of surplus product through the exploitation of a slave is regular. The entire surplus product, as well as a significant part of what is necessary, is appropriated free of charge by the slave-owning class. The gradual improvement of the tools of labor increasingly came into conflict with the slave-owning form of ownership, with the complete disinterest of the worker in the results of his labor. During the period of disintegration of the slave system, transitional type farms arise in which the worker, remaining the property of his owner, gains independence in the use of the means of production. Feudal dependence is replacing slavery.

Under feudalism, the basis of production relations is formed by feudal ownership of the means of production and partial ownership of the worker - the peasant. The feudal mode of production is also based on the use of relatively simple technology. The surplus product appropriated as a result of the exploitation of feudally dependent peasants appears in the form of feudal rent (labor rent, food rent, cash rent). The development of commodity-money relations and the growth of guild production in cities gradually disintegrated the foundations of the feudal mode of production. The developing productive forces became cramped within the framework of feudal production relations.

The period of disintegration of the feudal mode of production is at the same time the period of primitive accumulation of capital. At this time, the main prerequisites for the capitalist mode of production are created: money capital accumulates in the hands of a few individuals and an army of wage labor is formed - people deprived of the means of production and legally free. Due to the similarity of feudal and capitalist private property, the latter develops initially within the framework of the feudal mode of production.

The political economy of pre-capitalist modes of production deals not only with historical material. In many areas of the globe and in the 20th century. remnants of not only feudal, but even earlier economic relations have been preserved. This makes the development of problems of P. e. very relevant. pre-capitalist modes of production.

IV. Political economy of capitalism

P. e. capitalism studies the patterns of emergence, development and inevitable death of the capitalist mode of production.

The system of laws and categories characterizing the capitalist mode of production was revealed by Marx in Capital. The starting point in the study of bourgeois production relations was the analysis of goods, since goods historically and logically precede capital. A product has two properties: value and use value, which reveal the dual nature of the labor that creates the product. Marx's disclosure of the dual nature of labor (as abstract and concrete labor) is the basis for understanding P. e. capitalism.

Where bourgeois economists saw the relationship between things (the exchange of goods for goods), Marx revealed the relationship between people, covered with a material shell. He showed that the value of a product is determined by socially necessary labor costs, and the usefulness of a product, its ability to satisfy certain human needs, makes it a use value.

Analysis of the dual nature of labor allowed Marx to clarify the development of forms of value and reveal the origin of money, its essence as a universal equivalent, and provide an analysis of its functions.

Capital is a special, historically determined production relation. The exploitation of wage labor by capital serves as a source of creation of surplus value. The capitalist buys on the labor market, in accordance with its laws, a specific product - labor power, the consumption of which (labor) is at the same time a process of creating value. Capital is divided into two parts: constant capital, spent on the acquisition of means of production, the value of which is transferred without change to the finished product, and variable capital, spent on the purchase of labor power. The value of variable capital changes; it increases in the labor process by the amount of surplus value. The ratio of surplus value to variable capital characterizes the degree of exploitation of wage labor by capital.

Marxist P. e. distinguishes two methods of producing surplus value: the production of absolute and relative surplus value. In the first case, an increase in the production of surplus value is achieved by lengthening the working day, in the second (with a constant length of the working day) - by reducing the time required for the reproduction of labor power and increasing surplus labor time. Reducing the required working time is achieved by increasing labor productivity and goes through three historical stages: simple capitalist cooperation, manufacturing, and machine production. In the process of transition from cooperation to manufacture, and from the latter to the capitalist factory, the formal subordination of labor to capital is replaced by its real subordination.

The transformation of part of surplus value into capital represents capital accumulation. A faster growth of constant capital compared to variable capital (growth of the organic composition of capital) leads to the accumulation of wealth at one pole of a capitalist society, and poverty at the other, giving rise to a reserve army of labor and unemployment. the production of surplus value is the basic economic law of capitalism.

The surplus value created by the labor of wage workers is distributed among various groups of capitalists and takes the form of profit (entrepreneurial income), trading profit and loan interest. A specific form of surplus value in agriculture is land rent, and in the mining industry - mining rent.

Political Economy, political economy- one of the social sciences, the subject of which is production relations and the laws governing their historical development.

Etymology of the term

The phrase political economy was first used by playwright and writer Antoine Montchretien in an economic treatise « Traite d'economie politique» (“Treatise on Political Economy”, 1615). Montchretien did not write economic works either before or after. Back in 1911, characterizing the degree of independence of the treatise, the Encyclopedia Britannica concluded: it “ mainly based on the works of Jean Bodin" The circumstances that prompted the playwright to write the treatise were purely political (the author dedicated it to the young King Louis XIII and the Queen Mother Marie de' Medici). An excellent connoisseur of ancient languages and literature, Montchretien created an apt term to designate the subject of J. Bodin's research.

Abstract, anagram " political economy» - « economic policy"corresponds to the movement from justification (theory) to implementation (practice). However, due to their fundamental nature, the conclusions of political economy could be more of a recommendatory nature for politicians.

Montchretien did not have time to “introduce a new term into use” - confirm it in discussions with colleagues, contribute to the emergence of a tradition of its use, or at least see this term with his own eyes in someone else’s treatise. Over the next 6 years before his death (1621), Montchretien did not write any other works on economic topics.

Subject and method of political economy

Category " political economy" is one of the elements of a subset of the category " economic theories"; Accordingly, these terms are not equivalent and are not interchangeable. Political economy is only one of many sciences that formulate economic theories. Moreover, within its framework, as well as “within” any other science, several qualitatively different sets of particular theories can arise, coexist and even compete. Groups of interrelated, non-mutually contradictory theories developed within the framework of one science, on the basis of the same subject, but different groups scientists using different methods and techniques develop into schools and currents of scientific thought. Over time, differences between them in the field of subject and method can reach a critical point, after which the emergence of new sciences is noted, with their own, less mutually contradictory definitions of subjects and methods.

The subject of science is the key, but not the only object of its study. What is important is the sum of objects from the field of the subject of science, a subset of the sum of the objects studied by it. Depending on individual conceptual settings, the depth of the study of objects that are not named as part of the subject of political-economic research of a particular political-economic school may vary, up to complete abstraction from their existence. In some cases, this may call into question the legitimacy of calling " political-economic“a school where not only the subject, but also private objects of research ignore the categories essential to the definition of a given science.

Method of science - research techniques. Among the methods common to most other economic theories, political economy relies on:

Analysis and synthesis. Analysis is the division of a complex object into components. Synthesis is the integration into a single whole of parts, properties, relationships previously identified during the analysis. Synthesis complements analysis and is in inextricable dialectical unity with it;
Abstraction- after analysis, separation of essential characteristics (components) of a phenomenon from non-essential ones, carried out according to a certain (often quantitative) criterion.
Induction and deduction. Induction is a type of inference that provides a transition from single facts to multiple ones, from the particular to the general. Deduction, in a broad sense, is any conclusion in general; in philosophy - reliable proof or conclusion of a statement based on the laws of logic. In deductive inference, the consequences are found in the premises and are extracted from there through logical analysis. Induction and deduction are not separate, self-sufficient, but necessarily inextricably interconnected aspects of dialectical cognition.

Systematic approach- not a separate method (as is sometimes mistakenly indicated, along with analysis, synthesis, abstraction, deduction and induction), but the entire listed set of methods, which allows us to consider a separate phenomenon or process as a system consisting of a certain number of interconnected and interacting elements.

Methods specific to political economy, which may be absent or have secondary importance in other economic theories include:

historical and sociological method. Since man enters into the subject of political economy both as a subject of economic relations, and as an active participant, and as a result of economic processes, this science is obliged to consider phenomena in historically, projecting them onto a sociological result. The inductive-deductive relationship between these methods was noted by V. Sombart:

« The historical approach is an approach to the individual, one-time, while the sociological approach is to the repeating, i.e. to typical».

However, political economy does not replace either history or sociology, adopting from these sciences not their specific methods and subjects, but only principles. Thus, historicism is the principle of knowledge of things and phenomena in their development and formation in connection with specific historical conditions, their defining ones.

Political economy studies the economy and the relationships that develop in it as part of its subject, which is thus defined by the category “ Relations of production" These are social relations that develop in the process of reproduction, including:

production;
distribution;
exchange;
consumption of material goods.

Political economy identifies patterns and formulates economic laws that govern the development of production relations at different historical stages in the development of human economic activity. In order to distinguish them, different methods can be used here to distinguish qualitatively different states of the productive forces and production relations of society, in particular, a special category of socio-economic formations.

Having formulated its subject, and thereby drawing a watershed with the previous stages of the development of economic thought, in the 19th century, political economy, on the basis of compliance with this formula, makes a further demarcation with other sciences and disciplines adjacent to it in the field of the subject. These are, in particular: commodity science, history of law (including economic history) and the national economy of various countries and regions, economic statistics, etc. By interacting with them, and using materials professionally and thoroughly studied by specialist scientists in other fields, political Economics itself becomes the basis for the emergence of new sciences: economic history, econometrics, etc.

In the 18th-20th centuries and to this day, political economy is a major, but not the only source of socio-economic theories. The distinction between political economy and other related sciences and disciplines is made according to a number of criteria, including the socio-historical component, coverage of the interests of all social groups - subjects of industrial relations, forecast of the results of a particular economic policy. These criteria are generally met by a number of other economic schools of the 19th-20th centuries, one of which in this regard was called “Neoclassical economic theory” (going back to classical political economy).

material goods, and economic laws governing their development in historically successive socio-economic formations.

Name Political economy comes from the Greek words politikós - state, public and oikonomía - household management (from óikos - house, household and nómos - law). The term " Political economy"was introduced by the French mercantilist A. Montchretien in his work “Treatise of Political Economy” (1615).
. The emergence and development of political economy The study of economic processes and phenomena originated within the framework of a single and undivided science of antiquity. Formation Political economy How does independent science relate to the period of its formation? capitalism. The first attempts to comprehend the phenomena of capitalism and justify the economic policy of the state were made by representatives mercantilism, reflecting the interests of the emerging bourgeoisie, primarily the commercial one. Mercantilism studied mainly foreign trade (circulation), seeing in it the main source of wealth; they justified the policy protectionism. However, only the transfer of analysis from the sphere of circulation to the sphere of production and the study of its internal laws laid the foundation Political economy like science.

Its highest development is bourgeois Political economy achieved in the works of representatives classical bourgeois political economy : U. Petty, A. Smith and D. Ricardo (Great Britain), P. Boisguillebert , F. Quesnay (France). They made an attempt to study the objective laws of the development of capitalism, to find out the economic content of goods, value, money, wages, profit and rent. The head of the school of physiocrats, F. Quesnay, in his “Economic Table” (1758), first presented the process of capitalist reproduction as a whole (see Quesnay’s Economic Table). The merit of the classical bourgeois Political economy in that it laid the foundation for the labor theory of value. This theory was most consistently revealed by D. Ricardo, who on its basis showed the opposition of profit and wages, profit and rent. According to V.I. Lenin’s description, classical bourgeois Political economy- one of the sources of Marxism (see Complete collection of works, 5th ed., vol. 23, pp. 40-43). Classic bourgeois Political economy expressed the ideology of the bourgeoisie during the period of the formation of the capitalist mode of production and the undeveloped class struggle of the proletariat (18th century). The critical content of the theory was directed mainly against outdated feudal orders. The establishment of the capitalist mode of production, the exacerbation of its contradictions, the growing antagonism between wage labor and capital, the transformation of the bourgeoisie from a progressive class into a reactionary one served as the basis for the emergence of vulgar political economy (30s of the 19th century).

Vulgar Political economy originates in the works of T.R. Malthus (Great Britain), J.B. Sowing and F. Bastiat (France). She refuses to analyze the objective laws of development of the capitalist mode of production. but explores the area of underlying economic phenomena. Vulgar Political economy denies the theory of labor value: Sey declared “three factors of production” to be the sources of value: labor, capital and land. Denying the contradictions of capitalism, vulgar Political economy proclaimed the “harmony” of class interests.

The economic interests and views of small commodity producers in the city and countryside of capitalist society are expressed by petty-bourgeois political economy. Its emergence is associated with the works of J. Sh. L. S. Sismondi (Switzerland) and P.Zh. Proudhon (France), who criticized the contradictions of the capitalist mode of production. However, they saw the way out of these contradictions not in moving forward, towards socialism, but in returning to outdated, archaic forms of economic life. With the development of capitalism, the petty bourgeois Political economy is becoming more and more utopian and reactionary. In the 2nd half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. in the bourgeois Political economy Several schools are emerging. Austrian school (TO. Menger, E. Böhm-Bawerk, F. Weezer ) put forward the theory of marginal utility of goods, according to which the value of economic goods is determined by the benefit that the last (marginal) unit of the supply brings, and also depends on their rarity (see. Marginal utility theory ). In Great Britain there has developed Cambridge school, the founder of which is A. Marshall eclectically combined the vulgar theories of production costs, supply and demand, productivity and abstinence with the theories of marginal utility and marginal productivity. In the USA, J.B. Clark formulated the theory of marginal productivity and derived the “universal law” of diminishing productivity of factors of production (see. Performance theory ), According to which, as a factor increases, its productivity decreases. This served as a theoretical justification for reducing workers' wages and proof of the need for unemployment. Entry of capitalism into the stage of imperialism and development general crisis of capitalism caused profound changes in the bourgeois Political economy During this period, two main functions of the bourgeois Political economy: defense of the capitalist system and proof of its inviolability and eternity, in the form of a pronounced apologetics of capitalism, and the development of practical measures for state-monopoly regulation of production. The beginning of a new stage in the bourgeois Political economy associated with the works of J.M. Keynes (Great Britain) and above all with the appearance of his main opus. "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" (1936). Keynes showed the inability of the mechanism of free competition to cope with the productive forces and initiated the development of the concept of regulated capitalism (see. Regulated capitalism theory ). Keynesianism has become the main direction of modern bourgeois Political economy In 1913 A. Aftalyon (France) and in 1919 J.M. Clark (USA) put forward the “acceleration principle”, according to which every increase or decrease in income, demand or supply causes (or requires) a larger increase or decrease in relative (percentage) terms in “induced” investments (cm. Accelerator ). Subsequently, this principle was developed in more detail by R. Harrodom (UK), J. Hicks, P. Samuelson (USA) and is included in neo-Keynesian models of economic growth (see. Economic growth theory ). The economic concept of left Keynesianism is substantiated in the works of J. Robinson (USA). Econometric concepts have become widespread. One of the most common types of modern apologetic bourgeois theories are the theories of “transformation of capitalism”, for example the concept of “stages of development of society” by W. Rostow (USA), “single industrial society” R. Arona (France), “new industrial society” by J. Galbraith (USA), the theory of “post-industrial society” by D. Bell (USA).

Modern bourgeois Political economy is experiencing a deep crisis. One of its manifestations is the emergence convergence theory, according to which there is a gradual convergence of two systems: socialism and capitalism. The most prominent representatives of this theory are J. Galbraith, Ya. Tinbergen (Netherlands), R. Aron refuse to proclaim capitalism as the eternal and best social system and call for taking everything “good” that is in the capitalist and socialist systems. At the same time, they turn to purely external similar moments or processes occurring directly in the material and technical sphere (the development of the modern scientific and technological revolution and the growth of large-scale industry, elements of indicative, i.e., recommendatory, planning in capitalist countries, the use of commodity-money relations and their characteristic categories in socialist countries, etc.). Proponents of the theory of convergence ignore the fundamental opposition between socialism and capitalism, the dominance of fundamentally different relations of ownership of the means of production, fundamental differences in the social structure of society and in the development of social production, the presence of exploitation of man by man in the capitalist world and its complete elimination under socialism.

The crisis of modern bourgeois Political economy also manifests itself in the appearance in capitalist countries of the so-called. radical Political economy, whose representatives abandon the traditional dogma of bourgeois scientists and, in some cases, carry out useful practical research. The vitality of the petty bourgeois Political economy during the general crisis of capitalism is explained by the presence in many countries of significant layers petty bourgeoisie (peasants, artisans, small traders, etc.). In developing countries, petty bourgeois Political economy, which exposes colonialism and neo-colonialism, the domination of foreign monopolies and supports an independent path of development, can play a certain progressive role.

Created by K. Marx and F. Engels, the proletarian Political economy, being truly scientific, is at the same time consistently partisan. It inherits and develops the best achievements of previous economic thought. K. Marx and F. Engels carried out the development Political economy a revolutionary revolution, the essence of which was the application of a materialist understanding of history to economic life, the discovery of objective laws of social development and the creation of a theory surplus value - “... the cornerstone of Marx’s economic theory” (V.I. Lenin, ibid., p. 45). K. Marx was the first to scientifically prove the historical limitations and transient nature of the capitalist mode of production. He discovered and comprehensively studied the laws of motion of capitalism. A brilliant economic analysis of the capitalist system allowed K. Marx to make a discovery of world-historical significance - about the inevitability of the revolutionary collapse of capitalism and the transition of society from capitalism to communism, about the historical mission of the proletariat as the gravedigger of capitalism and the creator of a new, communist society.

Originally Marxist (proletarian) Political economy arose as a science that studies the production relations of the capitalist mode of production ( Political economy in the narrow sense). Gradually, as knowledge accumulated about the methods of production preceding capitalism, a Political economy in a broad sense, studying the relations of production of historically successive modes of production.

A new stage in the development of Marxist Political economy associated with the works of V.I. Lenin, who creatively developed the general theory Political economy based on new historical experience of social development. Lenin created the doctrine of monopoly capitalism (imperialism), revealed its economic essence and main features. Based on action analysis uneven economic and political development of capitalism law In the era of imperialism, Lenin concluded that the victory of socialism was possible initially in several or even in one country separately, and developed the Marxist theory of socialist revolution in relation to the new historical era.

Lenin's greatest contribution to the economic theory of Marxism lies in his creation of the foundations Political economy socialism. He developed a complete theory about transition period from capitalism to socialism, about ways to build a socialist economy, about socialist industrialization, about the socialist reorganization of agriculture through production cooperation of peasant farms (see. V. I. Lenin’s cooperative plan ), about the economic basis of socialism, about the forms and methods of socialist management. Lenin developed the Marxist teaching about the two phases of communist society, about the transition from the first to the second - the highest phase, about the essence and ways of creating material and technical base of communism, on the formation of communist production relations. Lenin defined the main content of the modern era as the era of humanity’s transition from capitalism to socialism, foresaw education world system of socialism, which will have a decisive impact on the entire world development.

Marxist Political economy- creative, constantly developing science. It received its further development in the theoretical activities of the CPSU and fraternal Marxist-Leninist parties, in documents jointly developed by the communist and workers' parties at international meetings. Significant contribution to the development of current problems Political economy contributed by Marxist scientists of the Soviet Union and other countries.

Marxist Political economy seriously enriched by research into the general crisis of capitalism and its new, modern stage, analysis of the forms and methods of state-monopoly regulation of the economy, study of the problems of the world capitalist economy, and the currency crisis. Significant works have been written on the economic problems of the Third World countries. The theory of the revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism was further developed, the analysis of the system of economic laws and categories of socialism was deepened, the position of a developed socialist society and the peculiarities of its economy was put forward and substantiated, the scientific foundations of the economic policy of a socialist state were developed, the doctrine of creating a material and technical base was concretized communism, the theory of socialist economic integration is substantiated and successfully developed.
. Subject and method of Marxist political economy Political economy- one of the components of Marxism-Leninism (together with philosophy and scientific communism). V.I. Lenin wrote that “the most profound, comprehensive and detailed confirmation and application of Marx’s theory is his economic teaching” (ibid., vol. 26, p. 60).

The subject of study is Marxist (proletarian) Political economy are relations of production, characteristic of different, historically successive production methods. The theoretical expression of objectively existing relations of production are economic categories. The most common, recurring, internal cause-and-effect relationships of economic phenomena and processes are expressed in economic laws. In the system of production relations, relations of ownership of the means of production are identified as the basis of all other economic relations. Industrial relations are studied Political economy in organic unity with those that determine them productive forces and the superstructure of the corresponding society. With the development of social production and the complication of economic relations, the subject expands Political economy In modern conditions Political economy cannot be limited to the study of production relations only within the framework of one or another mode of production. Deepening of the global division of labor, development of economic and political relations between countries of different socio-economic systems, economic competition between socialism and capitalism, expanding international economic cooperation - all this makes it necessary to develop the economic problems of the world economy. These include: ways and forms of influence of world socialism on the development of the non-socialist part of the world, the nature of economic relations between countries of different systems and prospects for their development, characteristics of the structure and social nature of economic relations and economic laws operating in the world economy. Here lies one of the main directions of further creative development of Marxist-Leninist Political economy

Highlighting industrial relations as a subject Political economy- the greatest merit of Marxism. Bourgeois Political economy I couldn't rise to that level. She studied isolated processes of production, distribution, exchange and consumption, often replacing the analysis of economic relations with the study of the technical side of social production, legal institutions and psychological factors.

Marxism also created a truly scientific method of cognition - the method of materialist dialectics (see. Dialectical materialism ) and applied it to the study of industrial relations in society. Dialectical materialism sees the only criterion of truth in the correspondence of the conclusions obtained by science to objective reality. This determines the creative nature of Marxist Political economy In the process of cognition Political economy takes a specific economic phenomenon as the initial one and, with the help of scientific abstraction, cuts off everything secondary, random, everything that characterizes its external signs, and step by step reveals the essence of economic processes. In the process of further movement of scientific thought, an ascent from the abstract to the concrete, from simple to complex occurs, a system of economic categories and laws is presented and analyzed. The method of scientific abstraction requires the study of economic relations in their most developed form, that is, when they reach the highest degree of maturity, and at the same time assumes that they are considered in a state of movement, development, and not in a frozen form.

Method Political economy uses general philosophical methods of scientific knowledge: analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, the unity of logical and historical approaches.

Political economy as a science it has a class, party character, for it studies relations of production that are closely related to the economic interests of classes (the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie). The coincidence of the interests of the working class with the interests of the majority of the population and their correspondence to the needs of the progressive development of the productive forces allows Marxist Political economy combine partisanship, direct and open defense of the interests of the proletariat with scientific objectivity. Political economy- an ideological weapon in the hands of the working class in the struggle to overthrow capitalism and build a communist society.

The surplus value created by the labor of wage workers is distributed among various groups of capitalists and takes the form of profit (entrepreneurial income), trading profit and loan interest. A specific form of surplus value in agriculture is land rent, and in the mining industry - mining rent.

The current stage in the development of the capitalist mode of production is characterized by the growth state monopoly capitalism, combining the power of the state with the power of monopolies. State-monopoly regulation of the economy, its forecasting and programming are developing. State-monopoly capitalism, being a new stage in the socialization of production, further aggravates the main contradiction of capitalism. To Marxist scientists developing theory Political economy modern capitalism, there are tasks associated with a deep analysis of new phenomena and processes in the development of the economy of modern capitalism, occurring, in particular, under the influence of the modern scientific and technological revolution, with the study of the mechanism of influence of the bourgeois state on the processes of social reproduction

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