The Classical Theory of Economic Policy: Non-Legal Social Control

Warren Samuels

Chapter 5 in Essays in the History of Mainstream Political Economy, 1992, pp 86-139 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The objective of this essay is to suggest the necessity of a definition of wider scope for the concept, ‘theory of economic policy’, particularly in the case of the classical economists. The conventional definition of ‘theory of economic policy’ limits its scope to the role of law. Thus Lord Robbins defines the concept as ‘the general body of principles of governmental action or inaction — the agenda or non-agenda of the state as Bentham called them — in regard to economic activity’.1 This definition, it is contended, is incomplete for it does not adequately acknowledge the fact that the state is but one reciprocally interacting part of a larger structure of power which comprises the total system of social control.

Keywords: Economic Policy; Political Economy; Classical Theory; Social Control; Classical Economist (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1992
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-12266-0_6

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-12266-0_6

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