Political economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Political economy - Essay Example According to the history of economics, political economy is a terminology that was originally used to describe the processes of production and trade in various goods and services, as well as their associations with the law, custom and the government. The government came into the picture because of its key objective to its citizens- that is distribution of national income and wealth to all people in all its regions within its boundaries. The term political economy is said to have found its origin in the 18th century, during this time, it was referred to as the study of states or polities, and hence its present name – political economy. Following this historical development, it is evident that political economy in modern times deals with the way governments makes decisions on distribution of income and wealth to its citizens to spur growth and development. In addition, political economics looks at how various political forces play a role shaping various economic policies of a country, especially with regard to distributional conflicts relating resources and management of political institutions. It examines how governments make their overall expenditure, investing in various sectors with an objective of improving the citizens’ well being. In general, there are multiple components to economic systems that are characteristics of different countries, it is important to have this understanding since the interaction of these different economic systems can be coherent or result in some kinds of instabilities. The process of decision making over various economic factors determines the use of economic inputs, which comprise of factors of production, distribution of the resulting output, the level and extent of centralization in the process of decision-making as well as those who make the particular decisions. Decisions regarding economic factors and their characteristics can be carried out and effected by