Economics is an ancient science. Its beginnings were laid in the kingdom of Babylonia in 1800 BC, when the first set of laws for the management of the state was created. Among them were the laws of economic management – the economy.
In modern society, the role of economics and economic science has increased so much that it made it possible to declare: “Alas, the age of chivalry has passed; it’s another age of economists and counting machines.”
Theory in general is a system of generalized scientific knowledge about the objects of real reality. Theory is the innermost part of all true science, and, as the famous scientist and poet M.V. Lomonosov said, science shortens our experiments of fast-flowing life.
Economic theory as a science of economics is as broad and complex as economics itself. General and particular economic theory are distinguished. General economic theory (hereinafter referred to as economic theory) reveals the general conditions, factors, forms and laws of management that do not depend on the specific sphere of economic activity, industry, country and their characteristics. Private economic theory reflects the separate theoretical foundations of a number of specific sciences: management, economics of enterprise, labor economics, analysis, accounting, statistics, finance, etc. In these “sections” of science, the features of the economy are studied at its specific structural level.
There are three approaches to determining the subject of economic theory:
Effective use of resources to better meet the needs, improve the quality of goods and services; Interaction of productive forces and production relations; The entire system of society, encompassing the productive forces, production relations and superstructure (politics).
The essence of the first approach is that since the material needs of society are unlimited, and economic resources for the production of goods and services are limited (or rare), the efficiency (effectiveness) of the economy is achieved through rational choice: the output of one type of product can be increased while reducing the production volumes of another. The optimality of the current production of products and the future possibilities of meeting the needs are also taken into account. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure full employment of the population and a sufficient volume of production in society. The main thing in the first approach is the “needs – resources” ratio. It is the subject of study of economic theory. Proponents of this approach study the activities of the individual, households, firms, society, and the state in the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods.
The second approach is to define the subject of economic theory in the system of productive forces and production relations. At the same time, not only their external, economic manifestations are investigated, but also the social essence, social organization, interaction and laws of development. This approach is characteristic of Marxist-Leninist economic theory and political economy.
In the third approach, the subject of economic theory takes the system of society as a set of economic relations, economic mechanisms for the effective use of resources, methods of state regulation and economic policy aimed at achieving stable economic growth and well-being.
Each of the three approaches expands the range of objects (good, needs, resources, productive forces, production relations, superstructures) and subjects (owners, households, firms, the state), the interrelations of which are studied by economic theory. Thus, our ideas about the economic life of society are deepened and summarized in the system of principles, theories, laws.
Economic theory, its subject is a system of fundamental scientific knowledge about the factors, laws, patterns and mechanisms of the functioning of the economy at various structural levels of the economic system.
Until now, the relationship between “economic theory” and “political economy” is ambiguously defined. There are many arguments for the fact that political economy is a special part of economic theory. Especially because political economy studies mainly the essence and manifestations of economic relations between people, i.e. their relations regarding the most important economic processes – the production of goods, their appropriation, distribution, exchange and consumption. These relationships are special, complex, important and dynamic, so their study has developed into a science called “political economy”.
It should be noted that in recent years, the political economy has experienced a certain stagnation. But this situation is transient. Therefore, future young specialists should know the features of political economy as a science.
First, political economy is a fundamental science. It lays the foundation for the “building” of all economic sciences.
Secondly, it reveals those economic laws that are invisible to people, but in accordance with which people can only live in society, creating its economic well-being.
Thirdly, political economy is a science that studies the social structure of economic life. And these are, first of all, those connections, those relations that develop between people in the economy (for example, what and why are the relations between the employee and the employer). In the absence of such an analysis, the science of economics loses its main object – a person in economics – and turns into a science of technology for making a profit or of sales technology.
Fourth, political economy, studying the relations of people in the economy, cannot but explore their interests, those economic interests that, in the figurative expression of Helvetia, “are an all-powerful wizard.”
And fifth, where there are interests, there are contradictions. They, too, are “X-rayed” by political economy. It studies the mechanisms for their resolution.
And sixth, since the economy is the foundation of society, knowledge of the economy and the relations in it creates the basis for understanding what society as a whole is – what its past, present and future are. And this in a complex modern life is important for any specialist.
But let’s return to the subject of study of economic theory. The subject of this science is the activity and behavior of a person, enterprises, their associations and society as a whole for the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material and spiritual goods in the conditions of a certain economic system.
The object of the study of economic science is the real economy, which represents a special sphere of people’s life, in which goods and services are created.
Economic theory is a system of scientific knowledge about the factors, laws and mechanisms of the functioning of the economy at various levels of economic systems |
Economic theory allows us to see in economic concepts, categories, laws, boundaries and forms a certain order, a cause-and-effect relationship, subject to knowledge and influence. Reflecting a complex reality, economic theory is a system of knowledge about how the real economy functions and develops. Being a system, this science has its own structure, in which 4 main blocks are distinguished in modern courses: general economic theory, microeconomics, macroeconomics, world economy (or intereconomics).
The first of them – general economic theory – reveals the general theory of the economic system, its structure, typology criteria, gives a description of its main types, types and models, determines the general prerequisites, conditions, elements and spheres of the economy, their features and efficiency, development trends.
Microeconomics is a part of economic theory that studies separate separate economic units – enterprises, firms, individual business entities, individual markets.
Macroeconomics is a part of economic theory that studies economics as a whole, as a totality and interconnectedness of all economic processes occurring in society.
The world economy studies global economic relationships – between countries, regions, international associations.