The name 'Political Economy' is used for the first time in 1615 by Antoyne de Montchrètien to refer to an eminently normative science directed to give criteria of performance to the State man. In volume V of the Encyclopaedia (1755) the article "Political Economy" by Rousseau appeared and in it he reminded us that Economy or Oeconomy originally meant the wise and legitimate government of the home and that the meaning of this term had extended later to the government of the great family that is the State. In these definitions, Political Economy is not an expression restricted to strictly economic matters, but rather it is enlarged to designate a whole style of "government" by the executive.

The conjunction between economics and politics has lasted a long time. The mixture of political recipes with economic analysis is very small, in the initial stages of economic science autonomy as well as at the moment. The very Lionel Robbins affirmed that "There can be no doubt that, throughout history, economists of all the schools have had the conception that their work has the most intimate influence on politics." And vice versa we could add that the different political philosophies have a decisive influence on the economy. Politics cannot be separated from Economics.

As Stigler indicated, maybe the professionals of the teaching of this science are the culprits of the attempt to separate Economics from Politics drastically transforming it into a mere arsenal of abstract and determinist technical terms. The economy became an academic discipline in the last decades of the 19th century while previously it had been a science directed by non-academics whose main objectives were in the political implications of the science. As the science became more exclusively a university profession the vital importance of political questions dwindled. In the academic world a certain abstraction and independence prevails regarding the contemporary scene looking for the rigour and elegance that distinguished working instruments give, sophisticated mathematical methods being among those that exercise a powerful influence.

The cultivation of specialized academic techniques was reinforced by the important triumphs of the physical and biological sciences of the 19th century since the Newtonian and Darwinian theoretical structures obtained a deep unity that influenced on the consideration of any scientific work as correct. Physics and especially astronomy suggested that a truly advanced science should sustain itself with a mathematical formalization that would allow extensive and successful deductions and applications.

In spite of the pressure and insistence on developing the positive economy, trying to leave aside the most political and normative part of the science, this objective has never been fully achieved. The revival of ethical concerns from the different angles of the economic happening is yet more proof of the futility of those attempts to reduce economic man to a mere, although complicated, lineal equation.

I believe that there cannot be serious and plenary understanding, or fair interpretation of the economic problem until two aspects are dealt with. Firstly, the economic aspects of human relationships and objectives have to be analysed in the general political framework of the social, individual, managerial and global decision-making process of which they are an integral part; and secondly the ultimate purposes of human nature have to be explained and reflected on. The strictly neutral Economy that simply remains in simple Economy is not even that what it seeks to be. It can remain in a mere juggling exercise. A rebirth of the Political Economy is necessary. It would not surprise me at all if this "apolitical" vision of the Economy were one of the important causes of the current economic crisis and one of the difficulties to overcome in order to emerge from it.

Joseph John Franch Menéu
Gaceta de los Negocios, Monday April 5th 1993