Establishing the Roots of Orthodoxy

Gerardo Rivera Ungson and Sixto K. Roxas

Chapter 3 in From Alleviation to Empowerment:Ruminations on Poverty, Capitalism, and Communities, 2026, pp 43-70 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: Social, economic, and political transformations occur in history through a process that links new ideas, movements, and institutions. The study of economics, as we conceive of it today, is rooted in an ideology shaped by close to 400 years of evolution of Western economic thought. The early treatises on economics were manuals for how a steward should manage a household (oikonomos in ancient Greek), or how a king should manage the economic affairs of his kingdom, or how a prime minister should approach the affairs of a nation-state. Writing in 1770, Sir James Stuart (1712–1780) then introduced the term “political economy” to describe the principles underlying mercantilism, which is considered the first treatise on economics. In his 1776 classic The Wealth of Nations, Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1723–1790) provided a blueprint for how specialization and self-interest could ignite a nation’s prosperity and social well-being. Their influence continues to the present times…

Keywords: Poverty; Poverty Alleviation; Poverty Eradication; Inter-generational Poverty; Environmental Degradation; Sustainable Development; Community Empowerment; Social Accounting; Human Settlements; Development Economics; Unsustainable Development; Ecological Sustainability; Capitalism; Free Market; Economic Orthodoxy; Classical Economics: Marx; Radical Economics; Bretton Woods; Sectoral Development; Sectoral Specializations; Neo-liberalism; Enterprise Management; Modern Corporation; Modern Enterprises; Microfinance; Entrepreneurship; Social Enterprises; Capacity Building; Conditional Cash Transfer; Mainstream Growth Theory; Biogenesis; Mechanistic Worldview; Jurgen Habermas; Spectrum of Consciousness; Communitarian Movement; Moral Capitalism; Humane Economy; Enterprise Logic; Communitarian Logic; Ekistics; Enterprise Accounting; Community-based Accounting System; Social Accounting; Valuation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I32 O15 O18 Q01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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