Reconceptualizing Classical Economics

Abstract

From the point of view of method and analytical structure, classical political economy provides the most clear-cut alternative to neoclassical economics. The central distinction between classical and neoclassical theory has to do with the way in which the former attempts to account for the reproduction of the economy through time. By including the notion of reproduction, the classical theory attempts to conceive of the economy as a determinate and enduring system, two qualities missing from the neoclassical conception. While the classical theory falls short in its effort to provide an account for the reproduction of a market economy, that effort can help guide us to a recon-struction of economic analysis with implications significantly different from those of the neoclassical theory. In the following, we present the barest outline of a reconceptuahzation of classical economics.¹