Relationship between economics and politics

[Foosimoo]

How do they interact? How has the relationship changed over time? Can politics ever be totally isolated from economic influence?

I'm supposed to write about these topics for my government class, and I'm kinda struggling here. Any input/help/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[wrppdarndyrfngr]

Both are intertwined. Not that they should be.

Just talk about the Federal Reserve

[Praetor]

This is such an impossibly broad topic. I agree, talking about the Federal Reserve is your best bet.

[SpacePunk]

iYZM58dulPE

[saysmydoctor]

They can't be totally isolated from each other. Ever.

[macabre]

Economics is the way that society meets its material needs so it's impossible to separate that from political influence, whether it be expanding the welfare state to cushion the blow during economic downturns, implementing tariffs to protect domestic industry, or establishing a minimum wage so that people have a livable income.

[bladerdude360]

Jeez that's a huge topic. Not sure how you would go about analyzing that. My best advice is to pick a specific event or era and look into that, because it's a huge, complex issue.

[Love As Arson]

My inquiry led me to the conclusion that neither legal relations nor political forms could be comprehended whether by themselves or on the basis of a so-called general development of the human mind, but that on the contrary they originate in the material conditions of life, the totality of which Hegel, following the example of English and French thinkers of the eighteenth century, embraces within the term “civil society”; that the anatomy of this civil society, however, has to be sought in political economy. The study of this, which I began in Paris, I continued in Brussels, where I moved owing to an expulsion order issued by M. Guizot. The general conclusion at which I arrived and which, once reached, became the guiding principle of my studies can be summarised as follows.

In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or – this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms – with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/preface.htm

[DonnerParty666]

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/preface.htm

resident Marxist, meet resident Reaganite :)

[lfdfforever]

Why Government Spending Does Not Stimulate Economic Growth

http://www.heritage.org/research/budget/bg2208.cfm

[vodyanoj]

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/preface.htm

And the only thing I have to add to that is that there is a third factor neglected until recently, to our detriment (and possible extinction): ecology.

[vodyanoj]

Why Government Spending Does Not Stimulate Economic Growth

http://www.heritage.org/research/budget/bg2208.cfm

It is not growth that we are concerned with but preventing a collapse. I shall leave the question of whether "growth" as meant by most market-pundits is desirable in the first place to another thread.

[wrppdarndyrfngr]

Why Government Spending Does Not Stimulate Economic Growth

http://www.heritage.org/research/budget/bg2208.cfm

http://i40.tinypic.com/29mxhea.jpg


next time dont use right-wing think tanks as "sources"