Etatism and liberalism as leading and competing paradigms for the development of economic theory

Abstract

Introduction. Economic theory as a fundamental economic and social science, born out of the dominance of the market (capitalist) mode of management, is constantly evolving, improving and enriching by new ideas and concepts. A penetrating analysis of the nature of its historical development makes it possible to identify and characterize certain cycles in the changing ideological attitudes of theoretical economists.Purpose of the research: study of the nature and trends of economic theory through the prism of the main paradigms, the formulation of their own evaluative judgments and the forecast of subsequent paradigmatic changes.Methods: deductive and comparative analyses.Results. The main paradigms of the development of theoretical economic thought are defined by the author as etatism and liberalism. The ideology of etatism tilts one part of economists on the side of the state, hopes for its «collective mind» in the regulation of economic and social life; liberal ideology makes the rest of the theorists advocates economic freedom, liberal ideology makes the rest of theorists advocates economic freedom, rational model of individual and «natural order» behavior under the influence of the market laws. Three paradigm cycles have been traced and described in the development of economic theory: 1) mercantilism → classical political economy → Marxist political economy (from the beginning of the XVI th century to the last third of the XIX th century); 2) Marxist theory → neoclassical economics→ keynesian economics (from the last third of the XIX th century up to the 1970s of the XX century); 3) keynesian economics → neoliberal and new classical economic theory → behavioral (experimental) economics (from the mid-1970 s.).Discussion. The analysis concluded that instead of the initial antagonism of economic ideologies of etatism and liberalism, since the second cycle, there has been a trend towards convergence and mutual enrichment. In the near term, the growth of etatistic ideology in the development of economic science is forecast, as evidenced by interest in the «experimental economy» The main explanation of the cyclicality of the main paradigms of the development of the theoretical economy the author sees in the change of generations of outstanding scientists-economists, change of «intellectual fashion».