political economy

noun

1. a social science dealing with political policies and economic processes, their interrelations, and their influence on social institutions.

2. (in the 17th–18th centuries) the art of management of communities, especially as affecting the wealth of a government.

3. (in the 19th century) a social science similar to modern economics but dealing chiefly with governmental policies.

4. economics.

political economy

noun

1. the former name for economics

Other Word Forms

• political economist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of political economy¹

First recorded in 1605–15

Example Sentences

Anxieties about inflation ate away at Democratic support, according to David A. Steinberg, an associate professor of international political economy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

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Alexandra, who is second in line to Norway's throne, will join her classmates from August and will study "international relations and political economy," Norway's royal household said.

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It’s a political economy that makes the rich ever richer and immiserates everybody else, while destroying the environment and creating more and more militarism.

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I asked sociologist Randolph Hohle, an expert on race, culture and political economy, for his thoughts on the Yale Youth Poll and the conundrum of young people’s shape-shifting politics in this era of crisis.

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He thought Ricardo had taken the science of political economy off on the wrong track and was going to damage the standing of all science and all people of expertise.

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