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Economics is a social science that studies how production, distribution, and consumption are organized. Economic views that connect to politics form the field of political economy. Since the beginning of capitalism, various schools of economics have developed, including classical political economy, Marxism, Keynesianism, and reactionary neoclassical economics.
Schools
Classical
Classical political economics emerged during the era of bourgeois revolutions and discredited the old economic ideas of the feudal aristocracy. It played a progressive role against feudalism and followed the labour theory of value but included limitations due to its lack of historical materialism. The classical political economists never questioned the historical origin of money, capital, and commodities.[1]
Vulgar
As the class struggle intensified, bourgeois economists rejected the scientific aspects of classical economics while upholding its flaws. They replaced the labour theory of value with unscientific theories including the utility theory of value, supply and demand, or production costs. While claiming to defend "freedom of labour," they attacked trade unions and strikes. Vulgar economics became the dominant form of mainstream economics during the 1830s and 1840s.[1]
- Frédéric Bastiat
- Henry Charles Carey
- John Bates Clark
- Thomas Malthus
- Alfred Marshall
- Jean-Baptiste Say
Austrian
See main article: Austrian economics
Austrian economics is a form of vulgar bourgeois economics that bases economic laws on subjective psychology instead of social relations. It promotes a marginal utility theory of value.[1]
Historical
The historical school of economics completely denies the existence of economic laws and instead focuses on separate historical facts and often supports reactionary policies. Many of its followers praised the German monarchy.[1]
Keynesian
During the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes proposed an idealist explanation for unemployment and economic crises. Keynes believed the state should decrease the wages of workers and increase capitalist profits in order to increase employment.[1]
Social
Unlike the Austrians, the social school of economics deals with social relations between people. It sees these relations as idealistic legal relations instead of material relations and considers capitalist activities to be service to society.[1]
Petty-bourgeois
A petty-bourgeois economic trend began in the early 19th century and criticized capitalism while idealizing the small-scale production of the peasantry and artisans. These economics promoted utopian socialism and failed to see the inevitable growth of capitalism and expropriation of the peasantry.[1]
Marxist
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels turned socialism from utopianism into science. They applied dialectical materialism and improved upon the basis laid by Smith and Ricardo to turn economics into a proletarian science. Marx and Engles published their discoveries in Capital, which consisted of three volumes released between 1867 and 1894. They based their analysis on surplus value and exposed the fundamental contradiction between bourgeoisie and proletariat.[1]