Introduction

The term political economy has several meanings (Schumpeter, 1954). In classical economics, the term was employed to cover various aspects of economic theory as well as economic policy (Mill, 1848). With the advent of the marginalist revolution in neoclassical economic analysis, political economy gradually became more concerned with broader issues and power relations. Economic theory became more ‘positive’ in nature, utilising mathematical methods to analyse issues in the context of optimisation problems and models of the economy or its constituent sectors. The normative side of economics was concerned with the best means of achieving an economic or social policy goal, such as the redistribution of income or the financing of a welfare programme, but the aim itself was exogenously given from the ‘outside’ through some unspecified political process.