Economics as a Political Subject Introduction . The economy doesn't exist in a vacuum, and it interacts with social and political factors, hence the study of political and social considerations/concerns . This is the belied of Alfred Marshall, one of the founding fathers of Neoclassical economics In April 1902, Marshall submitted to the Senate of Cambridge University 'A Plea for the Creation of a Curriculum in Economics and associated branches of Political Science' o October 1902, he presented a paper titled 'Economic Teaching at the Universities in relation to Public Well-being', where he argued that "economic movements are never an isolated series, but are always part of broader movements, in which social and political developments take a leading part; and therefore some general acquaintance with the social and political developments of the leading countries of the Western world is essential for a real, as distinguished from a merely hypothetical, study of the most important of modern economic problems" How economics and politics are inseparable . There are at least 5 ways in which economics and politics are intertwined, and then there are 4 ways in which power relationships affect the economy Way 1: Economics is largely about gov't policy, whose making is inherently political . A lot of economics is about how gov't policy can improve or damage the economy · Even when you recommend laissez faire policies, you are still recommending a particular course of action . Until the early 20th century, most people called economics 'political economy' o Came from the history that economics was originally developed as a way of advising the political rulers of emerging nation states in the 17th century on how to manage their economies o One of the earlier names of economics was 'political arithmetic' . Until the late 19th century, economics was dominated by those who explicitly recognised the importance of power struggle in the evolution of the economy; the Classical School of Adam Smith and David Ricardo and the Marxist School . The Marxist School sees the gov't in a capitalist society as the 'executive committee of the ruling capitalist class', against those of other classes . The Classical school also theorised the economy as a collection of classes o Ricardo emphasised how the division of surplus between different classes determines the way in which an economy invests and grows " He believed it vital for economic growth that the largest share go to the class that invest the highest share of its income, i.e. capitalists o Adam Smith said the gov't was instituted for the defence of those who have some property against those who have none at all
. With the rise of the Neoclassical school of economics in the late 19th century, an increasing number of economists have aspired to make their subject a 'science', free from subjective elements like political or ethical value judgements o Renamed economics and politics increasingly purged from it . There are at least 9 different schools that theorise about the economy in