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Encyclopedia of Law and Economics pp 1–8Cite as

Political Economy

Definition

The term “political economy” (PE) is mainly used in two related contexts. First, it is used to denote a multidisciplinary research field in which political scientists, economists, legal scholars, and other social scientists investigate the relationship between the political sphere (most notably “the state”) and the economic system of different societies on Earth at different points in time. Second, social scientists, journalists, and other observers sometimes use the term PE to refer to the observable interaction of politics and business in real-world societies. Focusing on the first context, this entry gives an overview of the research field of political economy (PE) and discusses its relationship to law and economics as a research program.

Positive Political Economy: Analyzing What Is

Within the toolkit of PE, there are basically two different approaches which are currently used to analyze the relationship between politics and the economy: positive PE (explained in this...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science (IfPol), University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Karsten Mause

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  1. Karsten Mause
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Correspondence to Karsten Mause .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  2. Dept DiGSPES, Univ del Piemonte Orientale Dept DiGSPES, Alessandria, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

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Mause, K. (2017). Political Economy. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_367-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_367-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-7883-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7883-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Political Economy
    Published:
    08 June 2021

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_367-2

  2. Original

    Political Economy
    Published:
    18 February 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_367-1

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