Political Economy, Ideology, and the Impact of Economics on the Third World

This work examines the practical impact of economics and economic ideology on the Third World. Gondwe argues that the scientific and technical veil covering economics reduces its capacity to affect current and future economic problems. Further, by attempting to shed itself of its ideological underpinnings, economics--particularly neoclassical economics--is running the risk of becoming socially irrelevant. The author concludes that economics as it is now being practiced is inadequate to deal with real-world problems because its assumptions and methods bias it toward intellectual games and away from solutions to social problems. Economics, he argues, should return to the political economy it was before it was reduced to a mere study of markets, and the reintegration of economics into political economy should focus upon people, not wealth, as the subject and object of all economic activity. This important work flies in the face of conventional economic wisdom and will be of interest to scholars in economics, political economy, political science, and economic history.