ECO 4119 POLITICAL ECONOMY Chapter 1 Politics, Economics, and Political Economy.
Political Economy
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Transcript of Political Economy
Political economy …
Political economy ?
Political economy
The birth• First - France in 1615 with the well known
book by Antoine de Montchrétien: Traité de l’economie politique.
• French physiocrats, Adam Smith, David Ricardo and German philosopher and social theorist Karl Marx were some of the exponents of political economy.
• Now a specialised subject of study in colleges
The present state of political economy…
• No more a synonym for economics• Different dimensions• Marxian analysis• Economists’ advice to a polity or public• Vast Literature discourse led to change in the meaning• From model of economic policy• To examining how political forces affect the choice of policies• political economy refers to different, but related, approaches
to studying economic and political behaviours,
The basic idea..
• interdisciplinary studies drawing upon economics, law, and political science
• explaining how political institutions, the political environment, and the economic system—capitalist, socialist, mixed—influence each other
• Each discipline has their own approach of relating their subject to p.e
Political economy and the internet
+++
One man army
The golden weapon
Music, videos, games, info, chatting, social networking, etc etc etc and lots and lots of etc
The intro…
• A computer with internet ( which involves a lot of other equipment like the telephone connection, the mode, software, etc.) has become a necessity.
• Millions of us are investing in what could be the largest media transformation
• A new form of convergence of social interactions into digital format on the internet
• Let us attempt to understand this transformation in the way we communicate first……..
• The decision makers and their role• attempt to make us believe these new forms
of communications- our own interest• They are sub-consciously (or consciously)
being driven by a ‘systematic momentum’• Our duty to keep a check on this phenomenon
to avoid a creation of society functioning as a solely consumerist and economic.
Political economy of communication….. (A
simplified version of Vincent Mosco’s ideas of it) • Analyse the forces that shape our
communication patterns• Understand the p.e of I.C by attempting to
uncover the realities of the current situation• The players, the players, their activities and
environments, and their motives and effects• Tries to understand social processes rather
than institutions
Mosco’s 3 entry points
• 1 COMMODIFICATION• 2 SPATIALIZATION• 3 STRUCTURATION
Political economy of the internet…
• "Digitization reinforces a social process in which the production and distribution of information evolves into the most important economic activity in a society, in which information technology begins to function as the Key infrastructure for all industrial production and service provision, and in which information itself becomes a commodity tradable on a global scale." -Hamelink
Contd……• Computing technology in workplaces• No need of physical analogue (news ppr, cd
etc.)• Can remain in digital bits• They just need a means to send it from
producer’s computer to recepient’s computer• Thus the internet in I.C plays an important role
The digital age – the age of convergence
• The merging functions of diff media• telecommunications, media and computing
industries – overlapping activities• according to McChesney and Herman This
convergence is important in two ways• 1. the size and growth of the merging global info-
communications sector• 2. the uncertainty in the markets caused by this
convergence
Increase in the number of people online
• Today internet is the mother of all mediums • You develop its economic potential- you get rewards,
you don’t- you’ll end up in oblivion• Competition a major force towards the internet for
companies• Hype created by mass media • Internet is important to their corporate customers and
interesting to their audiences• Govt promotes it out of the fear of the fall of their
economy due to dearth of their infra- structure• Today plenty of people mke their online presence felt
which have affected many aspects of our lives
Microsoft and monopoly• an industry giant extending its base• Has monopolized the market• Initially started s an MS dos os provider, today
comprises a variety of software apps• The Netscape controversy• US Department of Justice and 13 states have filed
anti-trust suits against Microsoft, charging it with uncompetitive practices
• controls the software that in turn controls attention,
Governments and the Global Information Infrastructure (GII)• Internet is global, thus leading to national
governments heavily involved in the formation of a new Global Information Infrastructure (GII), based on the Internet.
• Fall of soviet union – dominant economic idea – free market capitalism
• The W.T.O and I.M.F• Al Gore, the U.S. Vice-President, has been one of
the biggest promoters of the GII• U.S and European domintion in these forums
causing disparities in the flow of revenue.
The commercialized net
• The death of Acceptable Use Policy• Commercial sites largest category of computer
permanently linked to the Internet.• Every website has some commercial value to it • Real estates, transactions, shopping, are all
moving to the virtual world
Advertising on the internet
• Target audience attention• Which site or portal has the most hits-
attention economy• Search sites – ads picked on the basis of typed
words• Their research – invasion of our privacy• The cookies• many different forms of advertising, sub-
liminal and direct
Pornography and censorship
• a major conduit for digital pornography• All the hype has died• Culture gaps cannot be bridged • Software• Some govt involvement• Parental control options • Electronic privacy informtion center
Security and privacy
• Fear of hackers a hinderance to e commerce• Access to our info by researchers for
advertising• Cloud computing ??• Cookies• Photographs on net• Search engines – trackers of user info
lifestyle
• Virtual communities• Work life vs. home life barriers breached• Structural barriers broken• Change in communication patterns• Speed gen v/s lazy gen• The download culture• disconnect
Some other forms of political economy….
• (result of discussions of the topic with my kashmiri roommate zahoor-2 yr history student)
• Historians – Taj mahal ….• Literature- sale of art • History/education/journalism- nalanda• Technology- the issue of tablets to I.I.T students• Storytellers – films and visual arts