Historical Political Economy

Abstract

Abstract This chapter defines what historical political economy (HPE) is and is not, classifies the major themes in the literature, assesses the relative strengths and weaknesses of the literature, and points to directions for future study. We view HPE as social scientific inquiry that highlights political causes or consequences of historical issues. HPE is different from conventional political economy in the emphasis placed on historical processes and context. While the authors view HPE in the most inclusive manner reasonable, they define it to exclude works that are either solely of contemporary importance or that use historical data without any historical context (e.g., long-run macroeconomic time series data). The future of HPE is bright, especially as more historical data from around the world become available via digitization. Consequently, the future frontier of the field likely falls outside of the United States, which is the concern of a disproportionate amount of the current literature.