meaning of term "political economy"?

[inforitnow]

How will admissions committees understand the term "political economy" if written in my Statement of Purpose? I understand some people take it to mean the application of rational choice models to politics, while others understand it to mean the relationship between economics and politics. I'm wondering how people will read it if I don't provide explanation of how I'm defining the term.

 

Thanks,

 

Kris

[megabee]

My understanding is that it would be the latter (relationship between economics and politics).

[p287]

My undergrad is in International Development and I also take it as the latter. If it helps, I had to take a course called "The Political Economy of Development" for my degree, and this was the course description: Applying global political economy perspectives to key aspects of development finance. Topics include the introduction of basic economic terms, the role of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organization, and the growing roles of Transnational Corporations and financial markets in development.

[dagnabbit]

In my view, the phrase "political economy" is practically meaningless given its wide range of uses. Even its most general interpretation (work at the intersection of political science and economics) is fairly useless, as the two fields borrow so heavily from one another that the majority of political science research could reasonably be described as political economy. I would advise you to try to narrow it down in some way; IR and comparative politics both have their own political economy subfields (IPE and CPE) with stronger identities, for example. Or you could clarify that you're interested in the political economy of _____ (finance/development/etc).