Fine Ben. Economic Theory and Ideology

Edward Arnold, 1980. — 170 p. — ISBN: 0-7131-6267-8.This book is intended to present clear expositions of certain areas of economic theory with the ultimate purpose of exposing the theory to a thorough critique. The result has been that it is the essential elements of the theories that have been discussed rather than the elaborate details. There have also been excursions into the history of economic thought. In these instances, the various economists have at times been dealt a rough justice by way of representation. But then this book is concerned with a critique of economic theory rather than with its history, so that economists have been taken as representatives of certain modes of thought rather than as subjects for intellectual biography. Each essay is intended to be self-contained, but each sheds light on the others. This makes the ordering of the chapters difficult to decide. The first chapter is concerned with economic ideology, theory and methodology in general. It could as well be read last. The second chapter analyses the aggregate circulation of capital and consequently considers capitalism's economic structure of production, distribution and exchange, an important element within which the other chapters are located. The next two chapters examine Keynesian theory and inflation theory, and each provides elements that are absent from and complementary to the other. This is followed by two chapters which deal with the school of economic theory that has been inspired by Sraffa. Where his followers would claim a critique of neo-classical economics and reconstruction of Marxist economics, we have tried to show respectively that a reconstruction of neo-classical economics and departure from Marxism is the· result. The final chapter constructs an overview of the history of economic thought. In this book, there is no systematic presentation of an alternative body of economic thought. It was, however, written from a perspective based on Marxist economics, and the author's views within this controversial subject can be found by reference to the items given in the preliminary reading. This gap in the book is partly dictated by considerations of space, but more significantly by the objectives of the book. Apart from exposing the limitations of orthodox economic theory, it is hoped that this will stimulate an interest in the alternative body of knowledge that is inspired by Marx's political economy.