Political Economy Research Articles

Degrowth or secular stagnation? The political economy of monopoly finance capital and the stagnation-accumulation treadmill

Degrowth or secular stagnation? The political economy of monopoly finance capital and the stagnation-accumulation treadmill

A Political Economy Analysis of Social Work’s Development in China: A Social Development Perspective

A Political Economy Analysis of Social Work’s Development in China: A Social Development Perspective

Political economy analysis of health: a scoping review protocol.

The objective of this scoping review is to identify and map the literature on concepts, definitions, frameworks, outcomes, and applications of political economic analysis of health. The political economy of health approach seeks to understand how political and economic domains interact and shape individual and population health outcomes. A political economic analysis can provide insights into health problems and inequalities; however, there needs to be more clarity on how the political economy framework is defined and the methods adopted for conducting political economy analysis concerning health. Studies focusing on the political economy analysis addressing specific health problems will be included. The study population is not limited to any sociodemographic characteristics, and there will be no restrictions on language or the source of evidence (primary studies or secondary data studies). Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies will included, but narrative and systematic reviews will be excluded, as will conference abstracts and editorials. Studies involving sector- or country-level analysis will be included. The review will follow the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. Databases to be searched include MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL, CINAHL, Embase, ProQuest, DynaMed, and gray literature via Google Scholar and OAIster. Two reviewers will perform study screening and data extraction using a customized data extraction form. The concepts, definitions, frameworks, outcomes, and applications of the political economy of health will be summarized and discussed. The health problems addressed using political economy analysis will be enumerated. Stakeholder engagement will guide all steps of the study. Results will be presented in tabular and graphical formats accompanied by a narrative summary. Open Science Framework https://osf.io/4qaxr/.

Artificial intelligence: promises, perils—and political economy

Artificial intelligence: promises, perils—and political economy

Democracy as Secular Theodicy

Scholars across political philosophy, theology, economics, sociology, sociobiology, and history presently acknowledge that theistic and secular religions are similar in form and function. This essay goes further by establishing that all religions are congruent and otherwise complementary rather than being merely similar. All religions, regardless of their basis, are institutionalized behavioral responses to the “evil” represented by the scarcity of economic resources. All religions serve to unify populations for defense, cooperation, and production and proffer apologias for evil’s persistence in the presence of presumptively omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent sovereigns (gods, kings, elected officials, etc.). All religions comprise a mix of metaphysical constructs and all religious “truths” are pragmatic in the sense of reflecting “what works,” to what end it works, and for whom it works. Leibnizian theodicy, an aspect of theology and precursor of radical utilitarianism and welfare economics, argues that creating “the best of all possible worlds” entails divine trade-offs that purportedly minimize evil. Today’s political economics and philosophy similarly entail faith-based approaches to creating “the greatest good for the greatest number,” often implying the backing of divine wisdom. The upshot is the panoply of man-made evils, often intentional, that are characteristic of illiberal democratic majorities and theocratic states.

Contemporary Financial Nationalism in Theory and Practice

Abstract The 2008 global financial crisis and its aftermath provided fertile soil for criticism of and alternatives to the international liberal order, including the rise of financial nationalism. Contemporary financial nationalism is a view of the world that is nationalist in its motivation for political action, financial in its policy focus, and illiberal in its conception of political economy. At the same time, it is fundamentally shaped by its emergence from within the international liberal order, which both constrains the policy options of financial nationalists and provides opportunities for them to draw on transnational financial resources and institutions to advance nationalist causes. This article offers a conceptual analysis of contemporary financial nationalism that explores its fundamental characteristics, explains what is distinctive about it, delineates its four major policy subtypes, identifies the resources and capabilities required to successfully engage in it, and discusses the implications of doing so. It aids researchers in thinking about financial nationalism’s internal workings across different contexts, in understanding why it has lasted as long and spread as far as it has, in considering how it may evolve, and in contemplating how it can affect domestic and international political economies.

Another nursing is possible: Ethics, political economies, and possibility in an uncertain world.

Overtaxed by the realities laid bare in the pandemic, nursing has imminent decisions to make. The exigencies of pandemic times overextend a health care infrastructure already groaning under the weight of inequitable distribution of resources and care commodified for profit. We can choose to prioritise different values. Invoking philosopher of science Isbelle Stengers's manifesto for slow science, this is not the only nursing that is possible. With this paper, I pick up threads of nursing's historical ontology, drawing previous scholarship on the historical narratives nurses use to understand themselves. Peeling back nursing's myth to alternate points of origin allows me to consider alternate lines of flight, a speculative adventure in paths not taken but paths that exist nonetheless. I go on to examine what a collective ethic of nursing could be, when we make space for these alternate histories, considering the confluences and conflicts that enable nurses to care and those that inhibit them from doing so. The imperative for this lies in the central importance of the reproductive labour of nursing health care, which leads me to a critique of nursing's capitulation to the pressures of late stage capitalism. This is a problem with ethical and ontological implications both for nursing, and also for those who require nursing care, an imperative to think about the kinds of present/futures for health, care, and health care we might cocreate in collaboration and solidarity with the communities in which nurses are imbricated, shedding the trappings of neoliberalism. There is significant power in the vision and praxis of 28 million nurses and midwives worldwide. Our ethics can guide our imagination which can in turn create possibility. This kind of endeavour-that of dreams and imagination-leads us to what could be, if only we leap.

The Political Settlements Dataset: Power Configurations and Political Blocs in the Global South, 1946-2018

Political scientists have long sought to understand power dynamics across the Global South, but efforts to systematically capture political power have been limited, and existing datasets have faced conceptual and measurement challenges. The Political Settlements (PolSett) dataset was developed to address these issues. This original expert survey-based dataset includes over one hundred political economy variables coded for forty two countries from 1946 or independence to 2018 (totalling 2,718 country years). It allows for a detailed mapping of countries’ power configurations, capturing information on the relative size, power and social composition of competing political blocs in society, as well as their internal cohesion, accountability relations and distribution of benefits. The dataset is expected to enable more direct and rigorous analyses of power differentials in the Global South and their impact on political and economic developments. This letter describes the conceptual background of the dataset, how it was constructed, discusses its validity, and highlights some of its key features.

Mixed-methods impact evaluation in international development practice: distinguishing between quant-led and qual-led models

ABSTRACT Despite being widely endorsed for more than two decades, the practice of mixed-methods impact evaluation (MMIE) remains confusing. This paper suggests that greater clarity can be achieved by distinguishing between quant-led and qual-led models of MMIE. The quant-led model gives most weight to variance-based epistemological approaches to causal attribution but can also incorporate process-theory approaches. The qual-led model relies mainly on a process-theory approach but incorporates quantitative data collection and analysis. After setting out the context, the paper sets out these conceptual distinctions. It then presents an illustrative case study of how the Qualitative Impact Protocol (QuIP) has been utilised within the two models. Third, the paper explores divergent support for the two models. We conclude with reflections on how wider recognition of the distinction between them can improve evaluative practice by deepening our understanding of multiple options for the integration of qualitative and quantitative aspects of impact evaluation. While mainly intended to be of practical relevance to those planning, conducting, and reviewing MMIEs, the paper is also relevant to wider concerns over the political economy of knowledge production and distribution.

Mapping the Dynamics of the Vertical Farm: A Biopolitical Epistemology of Valuation

ABSTRACT In early 2020, Sobeys—one of Canada’s largest food retailers—partnered with Infarm Indoor Vertical Farming to install hydroponic vertical farming units in their retail locations. This partnership aims to build a resilient agri-food ecosystem in the face of climate change. Infarm is one of few vertical farming start-ups to reach ‘unicorn’ status in the recent boom of venture capital-backed urban farming solutions. Working to mitigate the climate crisis is critical, but I take venture capital as the spokesperson for green technologies as intuitively strange. Actor-network theory is a powerful tool for describing networks in which modern technical objects are embedded. By mapping the nodes of Infarm’s actor-network and analyzing how and by what the expertise of a ‘black-boxed’ vertical farm is negotiated, we can identify obligatory points of passage that render the epistemology of the network durable. Ultimately, Infarm’s vertical farming practice and its climate change mitigation logics are moulded by venture capital and its biopolitical epistemology of valuation—a way of thinking that conceptualizes ‘life’, biology and, therefore, the climate in terms of political economy.

Inspiration and Innovation of Informal Economic Governance under Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: Reconstruction of Street Vendor Governance Model in Fuyang City

Vallholder economy is an important driving force for urban economic and social development in the new era. Under the background of socialism with Chinese characteristics, through comparative research, empirical research, investigation and analysis, this paper concluded that the street vendor economy is informal, long-term and complex. For the governance of Chinese street vendors, we should learn from the theory, absorb foreign experience based on the national conditions and urban status, and find the breakthrough of governance from the root. Formulate “flexible” flexible policies, optimize space politics, divide and rule, break through the constraints of regularization, reconstruct and innovate the economic governance model of Chinese street vendors, and realize the “Sinicization of governance concept, local governance policy and contemporary governance model”. The research has enlightenment and reference significance for enriching the development of political economy theory, innovating the informal economic governance model and developing the informal economy in the new era.

Rethinking Energy Geopolitics: Towards a Geopolitical Economy of Global Energy Transformation

ABSTRACT We are in the midst of a global energy system transformation (GEST) which is rewiring the world economy, opening new axes of political contestation, and revolutionising the energetic basis of human civilisation. Energy geopolitics has not yet reconciled itself to this challenge. The field has traditionally been preoccupied with the dependence of Western states on cross-border flows of fossil fuels. More recently, efforts have been made to prospectively map out what the geopolitics of a fully renewable world might look like. What both literatures miss, however, is the very fact of the GEST: that we are living through a changing and contested process of global transformation, across interacting high- and low-emissions systems, whose contours are open and actively constructed over time. In this paper, we start to develop a provisional framework to make sense of the GEST, that is able to capture the full scale of the transformation, and its dynamic, contingent, constructed nature. We attend to three areas of geopolitical economy: the wide-ranging material dimensions of the transformation, its geographical space-making, and its conflict-ridden political economy. We then apply this framework to two case studies, one looking at the fraught role of fossil gas as a ‘transition fuel’, the other at lithium-ion batteries.

State Strategy, Diamond Mining, and Indigenous Dispossession in Botswana

In a world-system built through dispossession and exploitation of African and Indigenous peoples, the case of the San in Botswana is significant. The government of Botswana recently led a protracted campaign of dispossession of the Indigenous San, likely due to there being diamond reserves near and within the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. This article argues that synthesizing critical theories of accumulation, dispossession, and State strategy can help us understand how and when dispossession of the Indigenous San led to commodification and/or proletarianization, while also helping to understand what became of the dispossessed. It expands theorizing on the sociology, geography, and political economy of (under)development, Indigenous rights and sovereignty, and State-Capital relations in Africa. The structural pressures for States in the periphery to cultivate extractive economies while seeking integration within the circuits of global capitalism remain present, decades after achieving colonial independence. This highlights the tensions, limitations, and illusions of successful ‘development’ in the stratified world-economy. Finally, the findings in this article critically challenge the story of Botswana being the ‘miracle’ of post-colonial Africa.

Price theory, loanable fund theory, and indifference curves: theorizing authority through misuse of mathematics, logic and improbable assumptions

Economist Adam Smith‘s study ( 1776 ) initially was ‘Political Economy ‘, then knowledge used for eradicating poverty, want, and unemployment and then to study inflation, stagnation, recession, etc. Thus it became the science of economics. Economist J.M. Keynes viewed ‘ Political Economy and added three definitions a) Wealth b) Welfare and c) Scarcity in the study. But Richardo shifted from production and distribution of wealth to “ The produce of earth - all that is derived from its surface by the united application of labor, machinery, and capital. Economist T.R. Malthus ( 1820 ) joined to add one more dimension of wealth “ material(productive ) wealth and immaterial ( unproductive ) wealth “. L. Robbins and others criticized the neglect of immaterial wealth and stressed the importance of services. Modern economists are of the view that immaterial wealth - services are essential to increase production, productivity, and good health. Economist Alfred Marshall stated, “ Political Economy or Economics is the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life; it examines that part of individual and social action which is most closely connected with the attainment and the use of the material requisites of well-being “. Robins ( 1931 ), defined economics based on i) Unlimited wants ii) Scarce means, and iii) Alternative uses of means. This is the historical background of definitions in Economics in general. With utopian and illogical assumptions, passing no mathematical rigor, ignoring very vital parameters, and free use of mathematical figures as ornaments the topics of a) price theory b) loanable fund theory, and c) indifference curves have no theories, no precision but are only verbose and literary...The author feels that these topics do not deserve a place in 21st-century Economics.

P. J. Thomas’s Scholarship on Mercantilism and the Political Economy of Trade: A Centennial Appreciation and Assessment

This article addresses the contribution of the Indian economist P. J. Thomas to the scholarship of mercantilism and the political economy of trade. It considers Thomas’s 1926 book, Mercantilism and the East India Trade, and interprets Thomas’s account of trade issues in the late seventeenth century in terms of the graphical analysis of the imperfect substitutes model. It contrasts Thomas’s work with that of Jacob Viner and sets his work in a larger context of culture and technology. The article concludes that Thomas’s scholarship deserves to be rediscovered within the fields of international economics and global political economy.

Disaster Journalism Through a Political Economy Framework: An Analysis of the Turkish Press Coverage of the 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes

AbstractOn February 6, 2023, devastating earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 struck the Kahramanmaraş region of southeastern Türkiye, affecting eleven Turkish provinces, killing more than 50,000 people, and collapsing or severely damaging approximately 300,000 structures. This study examines the coverage of the Kahramanmaraş earthquake in the Turkish press through a content analysis of news articles published in the 10 days following the earthquake. The aim of the study is to investigate the presence and manifestations of political bias in the news based on political economy theory. For this purpose, two newspapers representing opposing views, Sabah and Cumhuriyet, were selected. As a result, it was observed that both newspapers devoted a remarkably limited amount of their coverage to scientific data and needs. However, it was observed that there were significant differences between the two newspapers in terms of topics, photo preferences, news actors, accused persons, and representation of aid donors. In addition, economic and political biases were found in the media's portrayal of earthquakes. Cumhuriyet focused more on the negative, while Sabah focused more on the positive, emphasizing relief efforts that served to foster a sense of solidarity and shift the narrative away from negativity. In addition, the study observed an excessive focus on soccer players, showing that newspapers may prioritize such coverage to optimize profitability, suggesting a potential commercial agenda underlying news content decisions.

Maps, Apps and Race: The Market as a Theoretical Machine

AbstractMy commentary situates Desiree Fields' lecture within a long‐standing movement that, paying attention to real estate data and techniques of property, turned the housing market into a theoretical machine. I understand her intervention as a fourth and pivotal conceptual moment in the study of housing markets and inequalities for the discipline of geography, for it brings racial capitalism and settler colonialism as theoretical starting points to analyse the political economy of housing in the era of digital property technologies. As such, her lecture opens up a welcome, ambitious, yet also uncertain terrain to advance global urban theory under platform capitalism and stimulate relational approaches in housing studies. Discussing the regularities through which race, technology and property shape housing and wealth inequalities across variegated sites of market‐making provides a conceptual horizontality that acknowledges the United States as a testing ground, rather than a ground truth, for the production of geographical knowledge.

Living at work: migrant worker dormitories in Malaysia

The COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia drew attention to the extremely poor living conditions of the country’s approximately 2.5 million migrants from South and Southeast Asia working in manufacturing, construction, services, and agriculture. International media reports throughout 2020 and 2021 highlighted the overcrowded, unsanitary, and unsafe accommodations provided by employers, including cramped hostels, stacked containers, and rented apartments. This article addresses how migrant worker accommodation in Malaysia is utilised by the state and by employers as a spatial mechanism of control to regulate migrant labour. This case study draws on over a hundred in-depth interviews with Nepali migrant workers, recruitment agents, employers, and policy officials in Malaysia. We detail how the Malaysian government’s requirement for migrants to live in employer-provided housing forms part of intensified immigration controls implemented by the federal government. This policy effectively transforms employers into ‘landlords’, bringing migrants’ ‘private space’ under their control, thereby enabling employers’ increased surveillance of their activities. We found that employers utilised the opportunity to discipline their workforces and intensify work regimes. We therefore argue that housing has become a double-layered regulatory tool to deepen labour control among migrant populations, perpetuate a state of temporariness, and reinforce visible boundaries between citizens and non-citizens. In the process, migrants’ living quarters (spaces of social reproduction) have been subsumed into the organisation of production, serving the demands of the low-wage, highly-controlled, political economy of Malaysia.

A Comparative Analysis of the Level of Direct Commercial and Financial Relations: A Case Study of the Two Sides of the Taiwan Straits in the Past Ten Years

This research conducts a comprehensive analysis of the direct commercial and financial relations between Taiwan and mainland China over the past ten years, aiming to understand the depth, trends, and impacts of economic ties. The study employs a comparative analysis approach to leverage data from reputable sources such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and official reports from Taiwan and China. The analysis of trade patterns reveals a consistent increase in volumes, showcasing a maturing economic relationship marked by the diversification of traded goods. Cross-Strait investments, particularly in critical sectors like technology and finance, highlight strategic collaborations and sector-specific interdependence. Financial relationships, examined through IMF reports and national financial institutions, demonstrate a deepening integration of banking ties despite geopolitical complexities. The study employs theoretical frameworks such as Complex Interdependence Theory and Political Economy Theory to interpret findings. The data analysis includes time-series analysis techniques to identify seasonality, trends, and cyclical patterns, providing insights for policymakers and businesses. The study's significance lies in its contribution to understanding the multifaceted nature of cross-Strait economic relations, emphasizing the endurance of economic interactions despite political complexities. The findings provide a nuanced foundation for improved bilateral relations, offering policymakers insights for strategic adjustments and fostering sustainable economic collaboration. In conclusion, this research contributes to the academic discourse on Taiwan-China economic relations by providing a detailed and empirically supported analysis. It addresses the intricacies of trade, investments, and financial collaborations, shedding light on the dynamics shaping the economic ties between these two entities.

Economic Development Pattern and Trade Imbalance: Comparing the U.S. with East Asia

With the development of trade globalization, East Asian countries have occupied an important position in global trade. The rise of the East Asian economy has led to a long-term trade deficit between the United States and East Asian countries, causing economic imbalance. Focusing on the economic development patterns of the United States and East Asian countries, this paper proposes a research question: How does the difference in economic development between the U.S. and East Asian countries lead to trade imbalance? This article uses comparative advantage and absolute advantage theory, Keynesian political economy, global savings glut hypothesis and the flying-geese model to provide theoretical support for the research, and then uses data from the World Bank and Bureau of Economic Analysis to further demonstrate. The last part of this paper makes an empirical analysis through case analysis and model tests. This study argues that differences in economic development lead to an international division of labor and a savings-investment gap, which in turn lead to trade imbalances.