The emergence of the concept “political economy”

Abstract

In this chapter Eggers argues that ‘economy’ did not primarily describe the administration of a household, and ‘political economy’ did not refer to administration of the ‘political’ household (the state) at the moment in history (the eighteenth century) when the concept and science of ‘political economy’ emerged. Eggers shows, contra the common conception of histories of economic thought, that ‘economy’ designated a complex set of ideas deriving from theological and natural scientific thought concerning the natural order of a given body. By importing the language of natural order, political economists of the eighteenth century developed an essentially anti-democratic conception of state administration, ruling out deliberation and contestation as nothing but deviations from the natural order of society.