----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Peter Stillman again raises the name of Hegel in opposition to my account of the change from "political economy" to "economics" In particular he raises Hegel's distinction between civil society and the state. But that represents a one-sided reading of Hegel. The first principle for Hegel is the unity of the whole. It is only inside that unity that the opposition and mutual dependence of the the state and civil society can be posited. Civil society and the state are the moments of a contradictory internal relation of the whole. Other writers have emphasised one or more aspects of Hegel's formulation. For the most part, economists, in the last two hundred years, have emphasised the separation of the political from the economic. Both marxists and neo-classics have done this, by insisting upon the dominance of the economic sphere in the relation between economics and politics. For both the economic is the underlying reality that provides limits to the political. A similar insistence upon the separation between economics and ethics can be seen the work of Ricard Lipsey. The difference between the marxist and the neo-classics, in this context, is on their evaluation of the economic possibilities. Generally for the neo-classics, the political possibilities are quite limited to a narrow range around the status quo. While for the marxist the political possibilities are some what broader, and the political status quo represents an anachronistic drag upon the economic possibilities. It is only among the institutionalist that you encounter opposition to this view. I am thinking particularly of Gunnar Myrdal and Karl Polanyi. For them the economic sphere (or the civil) do not dominate. Here you will find much more emphasis on the unity and mutual dependence of the two spheres, and a downplaying of the division and antagonism between the state and civil society. Rod Hay ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]