Introduction: The Economist as System Builder: Ludwig Von Mises and the Architect of Economic Science and Political Economy

Abstract

In this introduction sketch the architecture of Mises' economics and political economy. Mises' overarching program is one of examining exchange (economic science) and the institutions within which exchange takes place (political economy). In recent years the economics profession has moved considerably in the direction that Mises pointed to some 50 years ago. The increasing recognition of the role for private property and entrepreneurship in securing economic development as well as the acknowledgement of the failure of central planning point to an important opportunity for a renaissance of Misesian political economy, with its emphasis on social cooperation, market process, and spontaneous order.