ZIMSEC Advanced Level Business Studies/ Business Enterprise Skills Notes: Economic Philosophies: An Introduction
- Economic philosophies are also known as economic ideologies
- It refers to a set of economic ideals that a given person, society, country, people ascribe to
- It refers to what this group of people/person believe the economy ought to be
- It expresses a perspective on the way an economy should run and to what end
- In Economics parlance, we can say that economic philosophies take a normative approach as opposed to a positive approach
- This is because economic philosophies involve making judgments about economic fairness or what the outcome of the economy or goals of public policy ought to be
- Examples of ideas that are dealt with under economic philosophies include:
- Whether people should be allowed to privately own land and other resources (factors of production)
- Whether governments should be allowed to meddle in business affairs
- The extent to which certain industries must be regulated by the government
- Whether the government must make sure there is an equitable distribution of wealth
- How should prices be set within the economy or a given industry
- Should the government pursue nationalisation of certain or all industries
- Should the government pursue social welfare?
- Should the government introduce and administer universal health care?
- Should the government pursue policies to make sure there is an equitable distribution of wealth?
- To this end, over the centuries various economic ideologues have been put forth:
- Capitalism
- Socialism
- Communism
- Fascism
- Laissez-faire
- Marxism–Leninism
- One thing to note is that economic ideology is often part of a broad political idealogy
- Economic philosophies are sometimes confusingly called economic systems
- Strictly speaking, economic systems are often a mere result of economic ideologies
- Leaders who hold certain economic ideologies, create an economic system based on these ideals
- Economic systems are thus positive in nature i.e. they are what is as opposed to what ought to be
- Hence, for example, capitalism is often implemented in the form of a Free Market Economic system
- On the other hand, Communism frequently leads to the adoption of a Command Economic system
- Like all ideals, the economic systems are often a poor imitation of the ideology
To access more topics go to the Advanced Level Business Studies/ Business Enterprise Skills page
To access more topics go to the Advanced Level Business Studies/ Business Enterprise Skills page
