Economic theory as an interdisciplinary science. Vladislav Feldblyum Interdisciplinary general economic theory in action (electronic version of the book). Economic theory and jurisprudence

The concept and subject of economic theory

Economic theory- a social science that studies the behavior of people in the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods in conditions of limited resources in order to satisfy needs.

The subject of economic theory is the interaction of people in the process of finding effective ways to use limited production resources in order to meet the material needs of society.

The following can be distinguished functions economic theory:

- cognitive(knowledge of real economic processes, i.e. disclosure of the laws of economic development);

- methodological(explains how to build economic models, what methods to use);

- applied(used to develop practical economic policy, to create programs, to develop strategic economic forecasts).

Structure of economic theory

Economic theory like science consists of four main parts: microeconomics, macroeconomics, mesoeconomics (industry economics) and metaeconomics (world economy and international economic relations).

Microeconomics- a part of economic science that studies relatively small-scale economic processes occurring or associated with firms, entrepreneurs, households and owners of primary production resources and their economic activities, and also studies the market behavior of subjects, the relationship between them in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption.

Macroeconomics- a part of economic science that studies large-scale economic phenomena and processes related to the country's economy, its economy as a whole. The object of study is the summary generalizing indicators for the entire economy: gross national product (GNP), gross domestic product (GDP), national income, total public and private investment, inflation rate, purchasing power of prices, etc.

Mesoeconomics- a part of economic science that studies economic processes and phenomena occurring in a particular industry, as well as intersectoral economic relations.

Metaeconomics- a part of economic science that studies the world economy and international economic relations and considers issues of world trade and foreign economic activity, exchange rates and regulation, socio-economic potential and development of countries in the context of globalization trends as a result of integration processes.

Considering peculiarities State educational standards of higher professional education in economic specialties and established traditions of teaching the course "Economic theory" as an academic discipline distinguish the following main blocks what? specify Keywords: general economic theory, microeconomics, macroeconomics, transitional (transitive) economy, history of economic doctrines, world economy.

Methods of economic theory

If the subject of economic theory reveals "what" is known, then the method - "how" is known.

Method- a set of techniques and approaches to research. The method cannot be arbitrary, it must correspond to the peculiarities of the subject of the corresponding science.

There are the following methods studies of economic phenomena:

Method of scientific abstraction;

Analysis and synthesis;

Induction and deduction;

Aggregation;

historical method;

Method of economic and mathematical modeling;

Method of economic experiment.

scientific abstraction(abstraction) - simplification of scientific analysis by excluding from it some factors that do not play a decisive role in this analysis and can be omitted in order to obtain a clearer picture to determine the main determining relationships and dependencies.

Induction- the derivation of theoretical provisions and principles from facts, the movement of thought from the particular to the general.

Deduction- the movement of knowledge from theory to facts, from the general to the particular; the assumption (hypothesis) is checked by means of the analysis of the facts.

Aggregation- consolidation of economic indicators by combining them into groups. Aggregate indicators are generalized synthetic measures that combine many private indicators in one general indicator. Aggregation is performed by summing, grouping, multiplying, or in other ways reducing particular indicators to generalized ones.

Analysis- a method of scientific knowledge of phenomena and processes, which is based on the study of the constituent parts, elements of the system under study.

Synthesis- a method of scientific knowledge of phenomena and processes, based on the combination of individual knowledge and information into a single whole.

historical method- the process of investigating events in chronological order.

Method of economic and mathematical modeling- an approach to scientific knowledge based on the study of quantitative indicators through the modeling of economic phenomena.

Model is a simplified representation of reality.

economic experiment– study, research of economic phenomena and processes by their reproduction, modeling in artificial or natural conditions. Distinguish microeconomic And macroeconomic experiment.

Positive Economics- a part of economic theory that studies and explains economic facts, events, processes and establishes a connection between them.

Normative economic theory- a part of economic theory, which not only explains economic phenomena, but is also designed to contribute to the development of economic policy, the necessary course of action.

Economic policy and its goals

Economic policy is a purposeful system of state measures in the field of production, distribution, exchange and consumption in order to strengthen the national economy and meet the needs of the people. The following main objectives of economic policy are distinguished:

1. The economic growth- the desire to provide a higher standard of living.

2. Full employment- it is necessary to employ those who are able and willing to work.

3. Economic efficiency- Ensuring maximum return with a minimum of costs (because production resources are limited).

4. Stable price level- It is necessary to avoid a general decrease in the level of prices (deflation) or their increase (inflation).

5. economic freedom– economic entities should have the scope of freedom of action in their economic activities.

6. Equitable distribution of income– support for the population with incomes below the subsistence level through the redistribution of income.

7. Economic security– providing social guarantees to low-income and socially unprotected segments of the population.

8. Trade balance- a reasonable economic policy in foreign economic activity, an economically justified ratio of imports and exports.

Rational economic behavior

Rational, from an economic point of view, human behavior implies the following: what exactly? specify

1. Maximizing the result (profit) at given costs(with a given cost of production factors, the maximum amount of economic goods should be produced).

2. Minimizing costs to achieve this result(the desired end result is achieved with minimal input of production factors).

3. Economic feasibility and morality do not always coincide(if any action is negatively perceived from a moral point of view, this does not mean at all that it is not economically feasible).

4. Purposeful economic development(the goals of economic development are determined and purposeful economic activity is carried out).

5. Availability of selection criteria(the presence of indicators by which alternatives are compared and a choice is made).

3.1 3 Basic economic concepts.

General problems of economic development

and economic systems

human needs. law of increase

human needs

Maslow recognized that people have many different needs, but believed that these needs can be divided into the following five main categories:

1 Physiological Needs are essential for survival. These include the needs for food, water, shelter, rest, and sexual needs.

2 Needs for security and confidence in the future include the need for protection from physical and psychological dangers from the outside world and the confidence that physiological needs will be met in the future.

3 Social needs - the need to belong to society; a feeling of being accepted, a feeling of social interaction, a feeling of support.

4 Esteem Needs include the need for self-respect, respect for personal achievement, recognition of competence, respect from others, recognition.

5 Needs of self-expression- the need to realize their potential and grow as a person (Figure 3.2).

All these needs can be arranged in a strict hierarchical structure. Thus, two features of the system of human needs can be distinguished:

A person, first of all, tries to satisfy primary needs;

A person moves to the next level of needs only after the needs of this level are satisfied.

Hence, law of increasing human needs can be formulated like this: when the strongest and priority needs are satisfied, the needs that follow them in the hierarchy arise and require satisfaction.

Free and economic goods. Factors of production

The range of needs of each person and society as a whole is expanding, and the needs themselves are becoming more diverse. The needs of man and society can be called boundless.

In turn, the income received by economic entities, or the resources available to society limited. Any society, regardless of the level of socio-economic development, has limited benefits at its disposal, i.e. goods that satisfy people's needs.

If we consider in a single system infinity of needs And limited resources necessary to satisfy them, then economic entities face problem of choice. The need for choice is due to the inability to satisfy all existing needs due to limited income or other resources of economic entities.

All kinds of limited goods are called economic.

The resources that people use to produce economic goods are called production factors.

Traditionally, it is customary to distinguish four factors of production: natural, capital, labor force (labor) And entrepreneurial ability.

Natural resources will include all "free natural goods" that are used in the production of goods and services. These include: land plots and allotments, forests, water resources, reserves of minerals and mineral raw materials. The income from the use of this factor of production is rent.

Capital resources (physical capital, capital) include those means of production created by people specifically for further participation in the production process, which are directly ready for industrial use. An example is raw materials and materials, machine tools and equipment, transport and communications, buildings and structures, and more. The income from the use of this factor of production is percent.

Labor force (labor) is a set of physical and mental abilities that people use in the process of creating economic benefits. The income from the use of this factor of production is wage.

Entrepreneurial ability (entrepreneurship) - a special human resource, which implies a willingness to take risks, certain managerial and organizational skills required in the production of goods and services. Entrepreneurship is a consolidating factor that brings together other productive resources. The income from the use of this factor of production is entrepreneurial profit.

Opportunity cost

The choice in favor of any economic good in conditions of limitedness implies the rejection of another economic good.

If an economic entity makes a choice from three or more alternatives, although only any one good can really acquire, then the opportunity cost of his choice will be the best of the rejected alternatives.

Opportunity cost is the cost of the good that is the best of the alternatives rejected in the choice.

Production Possibility Curve.

Law of Increasing Opportunity Costs

The problem of choice and opportunity cost is important for determining the production possibility frontier of an economy of such subjects as a firm or a national economy.

Production Possibility Curve (CPV) or Production Possibility Frontier- a graph illustrating the possibilities of simultaneous production of two products (groups of products) in the short term at a constant level of technology with full use of a constant amount of limited resources.

An example of a CPV is shown in Figure 3.3.

Figure 3.3 - Production Possibility Curve

According to the alternative A all production possibilities are used for the production of commodities, and in the alternative D all available resources are consumed for the production of means of production. From a practical point of view, both of these alternatives ( A And D) are unrealistic, since society, as a rule, finds a balance in the production of these groups of goods.

As we move from the alternative A to the alternative D, the production of means of production increases by reducing the production of consumer goods and, accordingly, vice versa.

Dot E(2; 6) is below the production possibility frontier, therefore, at this point, production is possible, but the resources are not fully used, therefore, the economy functions inefficiently. At the point E'(3; 5) production is impossible, since the point is located above the CPV, i.e. there are not enough resources to produce so many means of production and commodities.

CPV is concave relative to the origin of the coordinate system. This is due to the action law of increasing opportunity cost, which says that in the short term with an increase in the output of this type of product, opportunity costs, expressed in the amount of an alternative product, increase per unit of incremental good.

The main reason for the increase in opportunity costs is incomplete interchangeability resources used, since economic resources are unsuitable for their full use in the production of alternative products.

The economic growth. Types of economic growth

The economic growth- increasing the potential production capabilities of society by increasing the amount of resources used and / or by improving equipment and technology.

There are two types of economic growth: extensive And intensive.

Extensive type economic growth occurs due to an increase in the amount of consumed resources with their quality and technology of production use unchanged.

Intensive type economic growth is due to the improvement of the quality of industrial use of resources through the improvement of machinery and technology.

Economic growth leads to a shift in the CPV.

If additional resources and new technologies are introduced simultaneously and approximately equally in all branches of production, means of production and commodities, then the production possibility frontier will shift from the position checkpoint 1 into position checkpoint 2(Figure 3.4a). If innovations are carried out mainly in industries that produce means of production, there will be a “one-sided” expansion of the area of ​​production possibilities in the production of means of production (Figure 3.4b).

Fundamental questions of economics

In all cases, without exception, the limited factors of production and economic benefits pose three fundamental problems for society: What And How many should be produced? How should be produced? For whom produce?

What And how much should be produced? Due to the fact that it is impossible to produce everything that would fully satisfy the needs of society and individuals, the question arises: the release of which products should be a priority?

In answering this question, it is necessary not only to determine which goods and services should be produced, but also when and in what quantity they should be created.

How to produce? Products on the modern market must have a certain set of consumer properties (design, style, quality, durability, ease of use, etc.). The development of scientific and technological progress and the changing needs and demands of consumers impose their own requirements on the organization and technology of production.

For whom to produce? This fundamental problem is the other side of the “what to produce?” problem. Solving the problem "for whom to produce?" comes down to answering the following questions: who will buy the produced goods and pay for services, what is now needed in the market, what is the state ready to purchase?

The concept of ownership and the main forms of ownership

Own- belonging of things, material and spiritual values ​​to certain persons, the legal right to such belonging and economic relations between people regarding ownership, division, redistribution of property objects.

Property (as a legal category)- this is a subjective interpretation of relations of appropriation that have developed independently of the will and consciousness of people. The right of ownership is expressed by a person's attitude to a thing as to his own or someone else's, and on what conditions he can use and dispose of it.

The most important steps in the study of property were made in the 19th century. The ideologist of petty-bourgeois socialism P.-J. Proudhon (1809-1865) owns the phrase: "Property is theft." If one person owns a thing, then another person is deprived of the opportunity to own it, i.e. not nature, but social relations underlie property.

For a more correct and complete idea of ​​property, it is necessary to determine its place in the system of social relations:

Property is the foundation of the entire system of social relations;

The position of certain groups, classes and strata of the population depends on approaches to the distribution of property;

Forms of property, as a result of historical development, change depending on the change in the modes of production;

The interweaving and interaction of all forms of ownership has a positive impact on the entire course of the development of society;

The transition from one form of ownership to another can occur in evolutionary and revolutionary ways.

In the Russian Federation, there are the following forms of ownership:

State (including federal and subjects of the Federation);

Municipal;

Public associations (organizations);

Private (individual and collective);

Other (including mixed ownership).

Socio-economic systems

Socio-economic system- a historically established or established set of principles, rules, legislatively fixed norms in the country that determine the form and content of the main economic relations that arise in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of economic goods; a way of organizing society to solve fundamental economic questions: What? How? And for whom to produce?

Market economy (pure capitalism) developed in the 18th century. and actually ceased to exist at the end of the 19th century. - the beginning of the XX century. as a result of evolutionary and revolutionary transformations, having transformed into a mixed economy and an administrative-command system, respectively.

The salient features of this system were:

Private ownership of investment resources;

A market mechanism for regulating macroeconomic activities based on free competition and free pricing;

The presence of many independent buyers and sellers.

One of the prerequisites of pure capitalism is the complete freedom of all economic entities. The solution of the fundamental problems of the economy is carried out through free prices and the market. Fluctuations in prices for certain goods or services are an indicator of social needs. The market system has the greatest flexibility in terms of adapting to changes in market conditions.

Mixed economy (modern capitalism) began to develop in a number of developed capitalist countries at the end of the 19th century. - the beginning of the XX century.

Prerequisites for transformation market economy in a mixed form of economy were:

Scientific and technological revolution;

Intensive development of industrial and social infrastructure;

Activation of the role of the state in the national economy.

In a mixed economy, the economic mechanism is undergoing significant changes due to the strengthening of state regulation at the macro level: planned management methods are further developed within individual firms (planning and financial department, marketing department, etc.). State sectoral and national programs of social and economic development are being developed and implemented. The tasks of using resources are solved on the basis of strategic planning.

In economically underdeveloped countries, there traditional economic system based on backward technologies, the widespread use of manual labor, the multistructural nature of the economy and the socio-economic stratification of the population.

In countries with a traditional economic system, natural-communal forms of management are preserved, small-scale production is developing (based on private property and personal labor of the business owner).

In the context of the underdevelopment of national entrepreneurship, the share of foreign capital in the economy is large. In public life, restraining socio-economic progress, centuries-old traditions and customs, religious and cultural values, caste and estate division prevail.

Administrative-command (centralized) system dominated the USSR, the Warsaw Pact countries and some Asian countries.

characteristic features administrative-command system are:

State ownership of all economic resources;

Monopolization and bureaucratization of the economy;

Centralized economic planning as the basis of management.

Feature of the economic mechanism this system is as follows:

Management of all enterprises and organizations is carried out from a single center, which deprives local authorities of their independence;

The state completely controls the production and distribution of products, thereby excluding free market relationships;

The state apparatus mainly uses administrative and administrative methods of management.

However, it is impossible to speak about the administrative-command economy only as a defective phenomenon.

Let us consider the most pronounced features of country economic models.

American model:

Small share of state property and minimal regulatory role of the state in the economy;

World Entrepreneurship Encouragement;

Sharp differentiation of incomes of the population;

Acceptable standard of living for low-income groups of the population.

Japanese model:

High level of state influence on the main directions of the economy;

Drawing up plans for the development of the economy;

Slight difference in the level of wages between the head of the firm and the employee;

The social orientation of the model.

German model:

High level of government impact on the economy;

Forecasting of the main macroeconomic indicators;

The difference in the level of wages between the head of the firm and the employee is not significant.

Swedish model:

Social orientation, reduction of property inequality, care for the low-income segments of the population;

The state actively intervenes in the pricing process by setting fixed prices;

High proportion of the public sector.

Chinese model:

The transition from the model of "centralized planned economy" to the model of "socialist planned commodity economy" was carried out;

Combination of market relations with state planning;

In agriculture, a transition has been made from "people's communes" to a system of "family contracts";

Revival of the economic activity of public sector enterprises by separating the right of ownership from the right of management;

Establishment of direct economic relations between enterprises;

Creation of a system of markets (stock markets, markets for services, information, equipment and technology).

Topic 1. Economic theory: subject and method ………………………….. ..5

Topic 2. Production and its economic organization ………………..… 18

Topic 3. Economic system of society and relations

property ................................................. ................................................32

Topic 4. Market economy: essence and structure………………..……….48

Topic 5. Supply and demand in the market mechanism………………….…….…..53

Topic 6. Money. Money circulation. Inflation……………………..……..73

Topic 7. Price and pricing in a market economy……………..……...91

Topic 8. Market competition and market power……………………..… .109

Topic 9. Factor markets. Land Market……………………………….……130

Topic 10. Capital and securities market……………………………….…..141

Topic 11. Labor market……………………………………………………….…..152

Topic 12. Market infrastructure. Market of goods…………………….…..167

Topic 13. State in a market economy………………………………..179

Topic 14. Finance and financial system…………………………………….191

Topic 15. Income in a market economy……………………………………...203

Topic 16. Taxes and the tax system……………………………………………216

Topic17. Macroeconomic equilibrium and macroeconomic

growth…………………………………………………………………….226

Topic 18. Modern world economy………... ………………………247

FOREWORD

The development of the modern world, Russia's transition to profound transformations in economic activity have significantly increased the importance of economic theory. The purpose of this manual is to consider the problems that life puts before a person in the transition to a market economy, and ways to solve them. This is important for the humanitarian education of students, introducing them to the high ethics of economic relations. Today, economic knowledge is a prerequisite for active participation in market transformations, and economic theory is an intellectual tool for understanding economic reality.

The training course on the foundations of economic theory focuses on general theoretical aspects, since it is they that give economic science the ability to overcome superficial ideas about reality, to critically evaluate economic policy and practice.

The team of authors hopes that the assimilation of economic theory by students will help them orient themselves to genuine social values: economic freedom of the individual, the right to profitable property, and entrepreneurship. These values ​​should enter the everyday, everyday consciousness of society.

Topic 1. ECONOMIC THEORY: SUBJECT AND METHOD

Economics is a fascinating science.

And what makes her most attractive

that its fundamental principles

can only be recorded on one

sheet of paper and everyone can understand

their. And yet they are understood

few.

M. Friedman

§ 1. ECONOMIC SCIENCE IN THE MODERN WORLD

Difficulty and The global economy is a diversity inconsistency directions and forms of economic development. Her modern world economic life is characterized by successes and achievements, difficulties and problems, differences and inconsistencies in economic interests and concepts.

The content of the economic process of world development is considered from two sides. On the one hand, it has common features and trends, on the other hand, it has specific features that manifest themselves in various regions, spheres of the world economy, and in models of the national economy. The modern world, consisting of more than 180 independent states, is divided between unequal socio-economic systems with different goals and mechanisms of functioning. By the beginning of the 21st century, the socio-economic differentiation of its constituent parts, which are countries with developed, developing market and non-market economies, deepened even more. The economic ties that are taking shape in the modern world have formed into a complex set of economic relations that affect the vital interests of people all over the world.

An important role is played by the trend towards strengthening the interconnection of national economies, the globalization of financial relations and markets. The contradictions that arise in the sphere of economic interests cannot serve as an obstacle to the development of integration economic ties between countries.

Meaning Complication of economic relations of the modern world, economic the specifics of the formation of national economies, sciences in cognition problems of the future development of mankind peace people's close attention to economic science. The role of economic knowledge and economic science in economic management cannot be overestimated. It is constantly increasing, since the trial and error method in the field of economics can give undesirable results and adversely affect the development of society as a whole.

Economic theory is a rigorous and exact science, operating with a complex conceptual apparatus, capable of modeling and determining the economic situation. It cannot predict economic phenomena and processes, but it explains the logic of development and the nature of the functioning of economic systems. The study of the historical forms of the economic development of human society makes it possible to learn the structure of the economy, to use the most effective means and ways to improve the standard of living of people. Economic theory teaches us to understand the complex economic world, forms civic consciousness, develops an economic type of thinking. Economic knowledge in itself is not a guarantee of success in life, in entrepreneurial activity, but it is necessary not only for professionals. They help to overcome social superstition, ruinous ignorance, and introduce them to the high ethics of economic relations, because only a reasonable and efficient economy can be moral.

All countries, for example, differ significantly in many aspects of the market system. There is no single model of market relations anywhere in the world. The experience of Western countries in the field of the market must be adapted to the conditions of our economy.

The world consists of different economic models. The model covers a set of similar properties of the national economic systems of a number of countries with their own goals and objectives, reflects the type of economic system that dominates in these countries. For the formation of a sustainable model, at least 10 years are needed, then its adaptation to qualitatively new conditions and a possible change in the model are manifested. For Russia, the issue of choosing an effective model of the national economy for the future remains relevant.

§ 2. EVOLUTION OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Economic thought is rooted in distant history. It arose and developed along with the development of human society. The economic foundations of human activity could not but interest the thinkers of the past. Practically all any significant religious, literary, legislative sources of antiquity contain elements of economic knowledge. The ideas presented in them had not yet emerged as an independent science and existed within the framework of undifferentiated social knowledge, the leading side of which was religion.

According to Karl Marx, the first economists were "commercial and state people". They were driven to think about economic questions by the practical needs of trade and government. But it must be admitted that for the first time they began to study the economy in a slave-owning society. The great ancient Greek thinker Xenophon (430-355 BC) introduced the name of the science "economics" - in Greek "yokos" - house, economy, "nomos" - law, doctrine. However, as a science, economic theory arose much later.

In the ancient East, the center of economic thought was mainly the problems of organizing and managing the state and royal temple economy. In China, with the emergence of the state and class society, the expansion of commodity-money relations, theories appear aimed at maintaining stability in the state. They are set out in the teachings of Confucius (552-479 BC).

The most important literary monument of ancient India "Arthashastra" (4-3 centuries BC) contains problems of the cost of things, their prices, as well as trade profits. The Arthashastra urges the king to develop the productive forces, regulate the prices of goods by creating commodity funds, and maintain a balanced state budget - "increase in income and decrease in expenditure."

In ancient Greece, the largest achievements of economic thought are associated with the development of the problems of natural economy (“Domostroy” by Xenophon), the ideal state (“Politics or State” by Plato (427-347 BC)), and elements of a commodity economy (Aristotle 384-322 BC).

An important problem that developed the economic thought of antiquity was slavery. Views on this issue ranged from a complete justification of it as “the lot of the barbarians”, “an animated tool of labor”, “income-generating property” (in the writings of Aristotle), to the recognition of fundamental equality between people (in the works of early Christianity).

In the era of feudalism, the idea of ​​social relations was formed under the influence of scripture within the framework of canon law. a positive consequence of this was the overcoming, on the basis of Christian doctrine, of the contemptuous attitude to work that developed in the ancient period.

In the 17th-18th centuries, the directions of economic thought were determined, among which the mercantilists and physiocrats stood out at the initial stage.

Mercantilism. Mercantilism(from the Italian "mercante" - Physiocrats trader) arose as a current of economic thought, as a theoretical school based on the primitive accumulation of capital. The entire 17th century is filled with treatises on how a single country can get rich by trading with other countries. The essence of the theory was to determine the patterns that occur in the sphere of circulation - money circulation and trade. Mercantilists considered trade the source of the nation's wealth, and identified wealth itself with money, proclaiming the accumulation of money as the main goal of state policy. The country's wealth was seen as the result of unequal exchange. The Frenchman Antoine Montchretien (1575-1621) was the spokesman for the ideas of the mercantilists. When one day he needed to find a title for a book on the management of the economy of an entire country, he coined the term "political economy" and set out his thoughts in a Treatise of Political Economy (1615).

The mercantilists defended the theories of monetary and trade balances, substantiated a policy aimed at increasing monetary wealth, on trade that would bring as much money as possible. They considered political economy as the science of the balance of trade. Only such labor was declared productive, the result of which, when exported abroad, gave more money than it cost.

The merit of the mercantilists is that they opened the way for new economic thinking. Their policy was to encourage the development of industry, with the help of which money was obtained, in protectionism, the expansion of merchant capital, the capture of colonies. To implement these measures, they demanded an increase in taxation.

The shortcomings of the teachings of the mercantilists are obvious, since in the process of trade, the exchange of goods through money, wealth is not created. Its source is production. Unequal, unequal exchange determines only the nature of the redistribution of funds and does not lead to enrichment.

But economic thought was already confronted with the question of the source of social wealth. In search of an answer to it, such an economic school was determined as physiocrats(The term is derived from the Greek words meaning "the power of nature"). Unlike the mercantilists, the Physiocrats considered production, but only agricultural, to be the source of social wealth. François Quesnay (1694-1774), a representative of the French classical political economy, who created the first macroeconomic model, headed the school of physiocrats. He considered the process of reproduction and realization of the social product as a continuous process.

The Physiocrats considered the task of production to be the creation of an abundance of "products of the earth." They proposed to carry out reforms in the economy while maintaining the dominance of landed property in order to avoid upheavals during the transition to a new social system.

Compared with the mercantilists, the views of the physiocrats turned out to be more progressive, since they came close to the correct definition of the source of social wealth. Physiocrats advocated freedom of trade, competition, uniform taxation, demanded guarantees of private property from feudal arbitrariness and restrictions, proved the economic failure of the feudal system.

The limited economic views of the physiocrats were expressed in the fact that they assigned the main role in the economy to agriculture, they considered only labor in agriculture to be productive labor. They referred to the working class as a "barren class".

classical In the 18th century, new economic thoughts expressed political theorists of the classical economic school Adam saving Smith (1723-1790) and David Ricardo (1772-1823).

A. Smith was a contemporary of the Physiocrats. But living in England, where capitalist production relations were already sufficiently developed, he was able to analyze them in more depth. In his work “Study on the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” (1776), A. Smith proclaimed labor to be the source of social wealth. He gave an original interpretation of a number of economic problems for that time. For example, he attached decisive importance to the division of labor as a factor in increasing its productive power.

A. Smith preached the idea of ​​“natural harmony” (balance), which is established spontaneously in the economy and creates an optimal regime for the functioning of the economic system. He determined that the value of a commodity is made up of wages, profits and rents, and this concept became the basis for the theory of the three factors of production. In the social structure of the capitalist mode of production, A. Smith singled out three classes: farmers, capitalists and hired workers. He believed that political economy should analyze economic reality (positive aspect) and make recommendations for the implementation of economic policy in practice (normative aspect). The main idea in the teachings of A. Smith is the idea of ​​liberalism, minimal state intervention in economic processes, market self-regulation based on supply and demand. A. Smith called this mechanism the “invisible hand”.

D. Ricardo made an attempt to build a system of categories of political economy based on the labor theory of value. This allowed him to openly formulate the opposition of the interests of the two main classes of capitalist society - the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Ricardo analyzed the process of production not only from the point of view of value creation, but also from the point of view of its distribution. He first explained the existence of differential rent.

The main achievements of the classics of economic thought are as follows:

Statement in the center of the economic system of the production process;

Substantiation of the labor theory of value;

The study of wages, the cost of livelihoods

worker and surplus labor;

Analysis of the essence of the division of labor and its growth factors

productivity;

Creation of the doctrine of productive and unproductive labor;

Development of the theory of reproduction;

The study of profit, loan interest, land rent.

Proletarian In the 40s of the XIX century began Marxist stage V political development of economic thought, which was replaced then saving Leninist stage. During this period, political economy began to be regarded as a science that studies economic relations (relations of production, distribution, exchange and consumption) of successive social formations. The method of materialist dialectics is applied to the analysis of socio-economic phenomena, and economic categories and laws are studied, as it were, from the standpoint of the working class. Based on the change in production methods and formations, an analysis of the development of human society is carried out.

But such an approach to the periodization of the economic development of mankind is now being reviewed and another civilizational one is taken as a basis. Its essence lies in the identity of the results of economic development in industrial countries, and the criterion for the study of civilizations is human needs, values, and people's activities. The civilizational approach recognizes only four modes of production (primitive-communal, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist), laying the general patterns of human activity and development as the basis for periodization.

K. Marx used a social approach to social production, showing it as a sphere of multidirectional economic interests of producers - owners of the means of production and hired workers. He established political economy as a class science and widely used the method of ascent from the abstract to the concrete. Having obtained a monopoly on truth and having lost its opponents, Marxism ceased to reveal the essence of economic processes.

Western In the same period, another parallel developed direction direction of economic thought, which is called - western. In the XIX-XX centuries, it included many theories. One of them proposed an empirical approach to economics, the other denied the whole value of economic theory. The theory of marginal utility was developed, as well as a theory that used mathematical methods to analyze economic phenomena.

The English economist A. Marshall (1842-1924), who became the founder of the neoclassical direction of economic thought, systematized and summarized the main provisions of various schools. The appearance of the term economics” is associated with his name. He wrote the book “Principles of Economics”, the subject of which was not the theory of labor value, but the theory of price (1890).

Economics is the foundation of modern economic thought, the science of self-regulation of the economy based on free market relations. The concept of "economics" replaces the concept of "political economy".

neoclassical theory unlike the classical one, it does not represent any complete concept, although it occupies a leading place in Western, namely, Anglo-American economic science. The focus of neoclassicism was the satisfaction of human needs. P. Samuelson (1915) expanded the scope of neoclassical economic research, and the representative of one of the directions, J. Keynes (1883-1946), made the economy as a whole, rather than a separate company, the subject of economic analysis. He considered the dependencies and proportions between the total national economic values: investment, national income, savings. The recommendations of J. Keynes were applied in practice.

Now the theory of "economics" synthesizes the main provisions of all existing economic trends and schools. It “reveals” the laws of business and the mechanism for their implementation, methods of management, economic policy, problems and contradictions of practical activity. Formulas and graphs are widely used in economic research. Qualitative analysis is carried out using differential and integral calculus. The categories of economics are somewhat different from the usual terminology of previous economic sciences. He explores, for example, the problems of efficient use and management of "limited productive resources". The undoubted advantage of economics is the use of typical and reliable economic facts, which indicates the absence of dogmatism, in which a certain position is taken as an indisputable truth that does not take into account the specific conditions of life.

In a broad sense, economics is a field of science; in a narrow sense, it is an academic subject studied in Europe and the USA.

occupies a special place in the history of economic thought. historical school, which gave impetus to the institutional direction of economic theory. If the classical school sought to establish a general and universal theory using abstract and deductive methods, then the historical school used a specific inductive method, the method of historicism. She contrasts the general theory of the classics with a special theory of the development of the national economy.

The forerunners of the historical school were A. Müller (1779–1829) and Friedrich List (1798–1846). Their work expressed a reaction to the classical theory. They believed that each nation is a special organism with its own life principles and its own individuality, on this basis its historical existence is formed.

The "historical method" was common in a number of European countries. In Russia, it was introduced by I.I. Kaufman (1848–1916), A.I. Savin (1873–1923), M.I. Tugan-Baranovsky (1865-1919), I.M. Kulischer (1878–1934) and others. The Russian historical school differed favorably from the German one: it was free from national-chauvinist sentiments and did not oppose the “historical method” to economic theory.

institutionalism- a direction in economic thought, proceeding from the postulate that social customs regulate economic activity. The determining role belongs to group psychology, and not to individuals, as assumed in the classical tradition. This expresses unity with the historical school.

The formation of institutionalism is associated with the name of the American economist T. Veblen (1857-1929).

The main contribution of institutionalism is to question the postulate of classical political economy about the rationality of the individual's behavior, the automatic achievement of the optimal state of the system, the identity of private property interests to the public good.

Representatives of institutionalism are supporters of an interdisciplinary approach and insist on the inclusion of elements of such sciences as psychology, anthropology, biology, law, etc. into economic analysis. But as a theoretical model, institutionalism is quite heterogeneous, and modern neo-institutionalism closely related to neoclassical theory, differing from it in greater sobriety in approaches and analysis of alternatives that are feasible in practice.

§ 3. THE SUBJECT OF ECONOMIC THEORY

The economic knowledge and experience of people that preceded the emergence of the economy provided an objective economic basis for the emergence of economic science. The origins of this process were political economy, which marked the beginning of the definition of the subject of economic theory as an independent field of knowledge. Then ideas about the subject of economic theory were constantly changing and were far from unambiguous. For example, some believed that it was the science of the creation and use of material goods, others that it was a science that studies activities related to the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods and services.

The modern definition of the subject of economic science comes from the limited resources and the satisfaction of human needs on this basis. The essence of this definition is that the subject of economic theory is the study of people's behavior in conditions of limited means to achieve their goals in the field of economic activity. It is the science of how people choose how to use scarce resources in order to produce a variety of goods and distribute them wisely.

The definition of the subject of economic theory is original, according to which it is a body of knowledge that answers the questions: “What? How? For whom to produce? This definition combines the concept of scarcity of resources with the problem of choices that people must make in search of the most efficient production option. Rational economic behavior of people is associated with minimizing costs and maximizing benefits.

Microeconomics and macroeconomics have their own subjects of research. From the point of view of the object of study, these concepts conditionally designate sections of economic theory. The subject of microeconomics is the study of the behavior of a firm, a household in a market economy with their right to make a choice of economic decisions, a study of the impact of the state on firms, as well as an analysis of the interests of individuals and the conjuncture of private markets. Macroeconomics studies the national economy as a whole, including economic ties between industries and sectors of the economy. It analyzes national income, spending and price dynamics, unemployment and employment, and so on.

Some economists emphasize applied economics, the content of which is the development of the principles of economic policy, the elucidation of the operation of economic laws, and the study of the functioning of economic systems.

Depending on the performance of functions, economic theory can be positive and normative. The positive one studies the actual state of the economy (what was, is and will be), while the normative one evaluates economic forecasts for the future (what the economy should be like).

The modern economic theory "Economics" explores the forms of organization of efficient production, constantly expanding the scope of research, studying economic processes and phenomena occurring in different layers of the social organism. In this case, various methods and tools of scientific knowledge are used. The subject presupposes a certain research method, and the method forms the subject.

Economic Economic theory in the study of the subject categories science uses economic categories and laws.

and laws The study of any economic system begins with the most common and frequently repeated economic phenomena, which are logically generalized in the form of economic categories. Economic categories is a theoretical expression in the form of abstract concepts of the economic relations of people. They define the essence of economic phenomena and explain their connection. Economic categories are not arbitrary, as they are abstractions of the economic forms that actually exist. They have their own content, are objective in nature and change along with changes in economic relations.

Economic categories reveal important aspects and features, the internal nature of the economy. The same economic categories link different stages of the economic development of society, shared by different economic forms. Commodity, money, price, property, etc., express the characteristic features of any economic system and are inherent in many stages of human development. Economic categories are interrelated, as are the processes they reflect.

The economic significance of the categories lies in the fact that they reveal economic ties that remain in any conditions of the development of society, behind the external appearance of phenomena they allow to reveal the real content of economic processes, to learn and use economic laws.

economic law- this is a strong, stable, essential, necessary, constantly recurring connection, interdependence of phenomena and processes of economic life. Economic laws arise and operate only in human society. They are manifested through the activities of people at different stages of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods.

Economic laws express the quantitative and qualitative aspects of economic phenomena and are used to measure them. They differ in content, terms and scope.

Economic laws are objective, interconnected and comprehensively express the essence of the phenomenon in development. Some economic laws operate in all economic systems, others - only in some. Thus, the law of increasing the productivity of labor operates in all modes of production, and the law of value begins to operate at the birth of the slave-owning mode of production. The uncontrolled action of economic laws can adversely affect the development of the social system as a whole.

Methods The word "method" (from the Greek "methodos") means "way economic to something." At different stages of economic development Sciences theory used different methods of economic research. Many are used in modern economics.

One of the methods of economic theory is boolean method the study of economic processes, i.e. study of thought in terms of its structure and form. With the help of this method, signs and differences common to economic systems are revealed, a logical transition from simple to complex is carried out.

So, in order to reduce the effect of natural forces in the economy or reduce their destructive consequences, people seek to understand the logic of economic development both on the scale of micro- and macroeconomics.

Method of scientific abstraction consists in the liberation of the object under study from the random, temporary and the search for permanent, characteristic features, in the abstraction in the process of cognition from the non-essential aspects of the economic phenomenon. The result of scientific abstraction are the concepts and categories of science. Cognition begins with the study of specific empirical material and its diversity is explained on the basis of general concepts. This is the way up from abstract To specific. This method is used when there is no opportunity for economic experimentation.

historical method in economic theory involves the study of economic processes and phenomena in time, that is, in the process of their emergence, development and death. This approach allows us to present all the features of any economic system, mode of production, but makes it difficult to analyze the abundance of descriptive material.

Dialectical method research makes it possible to identify internal contradictions in the economy as the driving force of its development. Economic systems and methods of managing the economy, free from contradictions, human society has not yet known. With the help of the dialectical method, ways of resolving contradictions, ways of overcoming them are determined. The severity of these contradictions makes it possible to find out when the economic system progresses in its development, and when it slows down social progress.

Tools Economic theory uses various scientific tools of scientific knowledge, which include knowledge analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, comparison, analogy, hypothesis, proof.

Economic systems are a complex set of various components, for a comprehensive study of which it is necessary to first study these components, that is, to divide the phenomenon into parts - to carry out analysis. Then it is necessary to create a complete picture of the economic system, for which it is carried out synthesis- connection of parts of the researched. Analysis and synthesis are done mentally and are directly related to the logical method of economic research.

Comparison allows you to determine the similarity or difference of economic processes and phenomena. It uses economic and mathematical modeling, which in a formalized form makes it possible to predict economic phenomena, determine their causes, patterns and consequences. The most important in economics is micro- And macro modeling.

In economic research, analogy is often used, that is, the transfer of one or a number of properties from an already known economic phenomenon to an unknown one.

It is also practiced to use hypotheses, which is a scientifically based assumption about the causes or relationships of phenomena and processes in the economy.

Justifies the truth of one thought with the help of another and such an instrument of scientific knowledge in economics as proof.

The process of updating the methods and tools of scientific knowledge of the economy knows no limit.

Functions The definition of the functions of economic science is associated with its economic subject and involves using it to solve Sciences not only theoretical but also practical problems.

Economic theory, first of all, serves the knowledge and study of the economic foundations of human society, the study of the criteria for the functioning of its economic, industrial base. In this regard, it is of great importance cognitive function economic theory. Knowledge of the economy is an integral element of a high level of education, a condition for an effective economic policy. The essence of the cognitive function is to study the patterns of development of the economic system, to analyze its internal structure, connections and interactions, to identify trends in economic development. Illiterate handling of the economy is fraught with undesirable consequences for society, since civilized economic forms are designed for economically prepared people. The cognitive function involves a deep study of economic phenomena, with special attention being paid to internal processes that are inaccessible to superficial observation.

Practical (pragmatic) function economic science is to implement the recommendations of economists in the field of practice, in their application to production. In turn, economic practice is a source of scientific conclusions and conclusions. In practice, economic policy is directly implemented, production is managed, methods and methods of rational economic management are developed and tested. Since its inception, economic science has been expressing the needs of economic development and developing recommendations for entrepreneurs and the state. The implementation of economic reform in Russia is partly due to the ability to use the results of world economic practice.

Methodological function is a definition with the help of general economic science of the fundamental, theoretical foundations of the complex of all other economic sciences. Among them are sectoral (economics of industry, agriculture, education, etc.), functional (labor economics, finance, etc.), as well as economic disciplines at the junction of different branches of knowledge (economic geography, demography, etc.). Economics is the methodological basis for the emergence of, for example, the economics of ecology, for management and marketing. It offers means, scientific tools for scientific research.

In modern conditions, the role predictive function economic science. Economic theory provides the scientific basis for making forecasts and determining the prospects for economic development. This function involves the development of general criteria and indicators for the development of the economic system as a whole. In the world community, economic science has been performing a predictive function since about the middle of the 20th century.

Some economists point out critical function economic science. Its essence lies in the fact that not only the achievements and shortcomings of various economic systems are revealed, but also obsolete factors and elements that hinder their development are determined (for example, economic ties in the systems of slavery and feudalism). This function involves finding differences between progressive and regressive economic structures.

Fundamental Regulation is action, activity, problem aimed at obtaining a predetermined economy result, programmed indicators. There are different approaches to defining the problem of regulation as a fundamental problem of economic theory, which are conceptually similar, but differ in some nuances.

The regulation process is characterized by complexity, as evidenced by the multiplicity of economic terminology that denotes this problem: economic regulation, market regulation, state regulation, social regulation, regulation of economic relations, and so on. Based on this, it is possible to single out separate objects of economic regulation: the economy, the market, economic relations, wages, taxes, money circulation, and so on. Purposeful impact on the object is the main task of economic regulation.

The subjects of economic regulation are those who represent, express and implement economic interests. State regulation is aimed at observing the interests of the state, society as a whole, and socially unprotected segments of the population.

The purpose of economic regulation is to adapt a functioning economic system to constantly changing conditions of existence. Economic regulation can, by a number of signs, reveal the weakness of the economic mechanism in the face of a long-term perspective and thereby reveal its strategic failure. The development of ways and methods of regulation is a fundamental problem, since the economic mechanism in a market economy is subject to a certain order, rules, and the interaction of various parts of this mechanism necessary for the economy is established.

The nature of regulation may differ by directly influencing the process or by using indirect levers for this purpose. Purposeful actions ensure the maintenance or change of economic processes and phenomena. Regulation of the economy, for example, can take three main forms: directive planning, indicative (guiding) regulation, and market self-regulation. In a real economy, it is possible to combine all three forms of regulation in certain proportions.

Economic regulation includes a system of ways and methods to improve the efficiency of economic relations. Distinguish administrative and economic methods of regulation of economic life in the country. The optimal combination of them or preference for any depends on specific economic conditions.

With a mixed type of macroeconomic management, it is supposed to use such regulators for establishing the necessary proportions of economic development as the state and the market. There are various approaches to determining the degree of participation of these regulators in the economic mechanism.

The stages of economic regulation are characterized by an advance from the use of simpler forms to more complex ones.

Economic regulation is inherent in the probabilistic nature of implementation, which is determined by the susceptibility of the economy to the impact of external and internal factors. This also determines the degree of its controllability.

Questions for self-control

1. What is the complexity of the economic development of the modern world?

2. What is the role of economics in understanding the world?

3. What are the links between economic reality and economic theory? What are the stages of theoretical study of economic phenomena.

4. What was the progressive nature of classical political economy? Who was its creator?

5. What is the contribution of Marxism to the development of economic theory?

6. Name the main directions of development of modern economic thought.

7. What are the methods and tools for understanding economic processes?

8. What is the subject of economic science?

9. Define economic categories and economic laws. What is the difference in the manifestation of economic laws and the laws of nature?

10. What is the difference between positive and normative statements?

11. What are the functions of economic science?

12. What is the essence of the problem of economic regulation?

3) the study of those intermediate, butt-links between the productive forces and production relations, through which the two aspects of the mode of production are interconnected. In this regard, economic theory explores such processes as the division of labor, labor cooperation, organization of production, etc. They express the interaction of productive forces and production relations. The question of the inclusion of productive forces in the subject of economic theory continues to be debatable. There are different opinions in the economic literature on this subject:
1) categorical exclusion of productive forces from the scope of theoretical economic analysis;
2) full or partial inclusion of productive forces in the subject of economic theory.
The relations of production are the social form of the productive forces. They are independent to a certain extent, have their own structure.
The development of the productive forces is accompanied by a deepening division of labor, that is, by the differentiation of various types of labor activity. Distinguish between the division of labor within society and within the enterprise. In this regard, there are:
1) the general division of labor, i.e., the division of social production into large branches (industry, agriculture, construction, transport, etc.);
2) a private division of labor, i.e., the division of large types of production into types and subspecies (for example, in industry - heavy, light, electrical, etc.);
3) a single division of labor within the enterprise (subdivision of the enterprise).
Production relations in unity with the productive forces represent the economic basis of society. While studying it, economic theory also takes into account the active role of the superstructure. The superstructure includes the following social relations: state, political, ideological, legal, religious, socio-political and others.
Economic theory studies production relations in unity with the elements of the superstructure, and, above all, in conjunction with the economic state policy, with economic law.
Elements (institutions) of the superstructure are not directly included in the subject of economic theory. At the same time, while investigating the mechanism of the use of economic laws, she turns to the analysis of economic forms at the junction of production relations and the superstructure. Here intermediate or boundary categories are formed, for example, production management, etc.
The interdependence of politics and economics includes their interpenetration. Politics, to the extent that it penetrates the economy, is included in the subject of economic theory. But it enters here as a necessary internal movement of the economy, and not by itself.
For example, feudal relations cannot be understood without relations of non-economic coercion protected by the state. Here non-economic coercion constitutes the internal moment of economic relations. In a different way, but nevertheless, politics also penetrates the capitalist economy, and therefore enters the subject of the economic theory of capitalism.
The economic theory of a separate mode of production is an organic component of economic theory in the broadest sense of the word. What is the essence of this science in the broadest sense?
Economic theory in a broad sense is the science of the conditions and forms under which production and exchange take place in various human societies; about the laws governing the production and exchange of life's goods. Economic theory in the broad sense of the word has already been created by the efforts of such prominent economists as A. Montchretien, V. Petty, F. Quesnay, A. Turgot, A. Smith, D. Ricardo, J. S. Mill, K. Marx, F. Engels, V.I. Lenin, A. Marshall, J. M. Keynes, A. Pigou, V. Cherkovets, Sraffa and others.
Each mode of production, as a dialectical unity of productive forces and production relations, has its own specifics. Therefore, it is legitimate to speak about the economic theory of pre-capitalist modes of production (primitive-communal, slave-owning, feudal), about the economic theory of capitalism and socialism. But at the same time, one cannot consider economic theory in the broad sense as a simple sum of these economic theories. It is wrong to think that there is no general subject of economic theory. The features of this or that mode of production do not cancel or change the subject of economic theory in a broad sense. Such an object exists.
Economic theory is a historical science. In a certain respect, it reflects the natural course of development of human society. The subject of economic theory in a broad sense is production relations inextricably linked with the productive forces that determine them, as well as the system of economic laws that govern relations between people in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods and services.
With the development of economic relations, the subject of economic theory expands. At present, it includes not only relations within the national economies of individual countries, but also international economic relations. Modern economic theory deeply studies the world economy:
first, because the international division of labor has deepened;
secondly, because economic relations have expanded between all countries of the world (developed, developing and backward);
thirdly, because it is necessary to characterize the structure of the world economy, its contradictions and development trends;
fourthly, because it is necessary to reveal the modification of economic relations and economic laws in the world economy.
Economic activity is carried out not just by people, not just members of society, but by economic agents, which include workers, managers, bankers, owners of houses and shares, bonds and land, farmers, entrepreneurs. The activity of economic agents, the patterns that determine it, are included in the subject of economic theory.
Economic theory reveals characteristic phenomena, since economic patterns cannot be derived from random, private facts.
By studying its subject, economic theory reveals economic categories and economic laws. Thus, it forms the economic categorical-conceptual apparatus.
The economic category is a theoretical expression of the content of production relations; a logical concept that reflects the content of specific economic phenomena. Economic categories are: goods, money, capital, price, profit, cost, costs, prime cost, profitability, national income, etc. Through economic categories, economic phenomena are connected.
Economic laws are the most general, repetitive, internal, causal, essential connections of economic phenomena and processes. Efficient production presupposes the knowledge of the mechanism of action and the mechanism of the use of economic laws. People, knowing the mechanism of action of economic laws, can make informed decisions within the framework of the achieved development of productive forces.
Modern economic science is a supranational phenomenon. Of particular importance to the international nature of economic science in our time is the fact that global trends in the development of the world community are becoming leading for the overwhelming number of states on the planet. The globalization of the economy underlies the globalization of economic knowledge. However, this process does not mean that in the development of individual countries, national features that are due to historical and other factors are completely erased. Similar features are clearly manifested in Russia. Therefore, Russian economic science could not but take into account the specific circumstances of its country, just as in other states and regions, national features of development were not ignored.
At the same time, world development at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. convincingly shows that market principles are becoming global, and therefore we can talk about the universal paradigm of the economic theory of a market economy. But it does not follow from this that there is a universal model of a market economy common to all. Each country has its own national model. This also applies to Russia. The uniqueness of the country market model is expressed not by economic theory, not by market principles and motives as such, but by sectoral economic sciences and their combination.
Modern economic theory is not a monolith, it is a collection of different schools and trends. However, the teaching of economic theory should be systematic and integral.
Systematic nature of economic education depends on many factors and is determined by a number of circumstances. But first of all, it relies on the systemic nature of economic science, the core of which is the systemic nature of economic theory.
The systemic nature of economic education helps to comprehensively perceive reality and the prospects for its change. The interdependence of economic processes, their conditionality, on the one hand, by established patterns, and, on the other hand, by the subjective actions of real people, objectively enhances the role of fundamental science, and above all economic theory.

1.2. System of economic sciences. Place and role of economic theory in the system of economic sciences. Economic theory and natural sciences

Economic theory is the core of economic education. If we turn to the structure of economic science, it must be emphasized that its structure-forming element, of course, is economic theory. It is economic theory that forms the international core of economic science, studies universal objective patterns and connections. As for the sectoral economic sciences, firstly, they constitute the remaining elements of the structure of economic knowledge, secondly, they most sensitively respond to the development of the division of labor and the corresponding complication of the national economy, and, thirdly, they absorb the national specifics of the economy of a particular countries.
Since the sectoral structure of the economy of individual countries differs a lot from each other, to the extent that national economic science always has a unique structure, and hence its own specific differences. General economic theory minimally "responds" to the climatic and other characteristics of individual countries, but the vast majority of branch sciences cannot imagine themselves without "national clothes". It is known that among the branch sciences there are those that are increasingly acquiring a universal, global character. For example, management theory, statistics theory, accounting and financial accounting, analysis and audit. As can be seen, the latter just testify to the manifestation of global trends in national development.
The diversity of today's and future world leads to further specialization in the system of economic sciences. New branches of economic knowledge continue to emerge, thereby increasing the importance of branch economic sciences. At the same time, a number of phenomena become the subject of interdisciplinary study, which gives a start in life to new scientific related areas - economic philosophy, economic sociology, institutional economics, etc. Thus, many features and trends of modern life receive scientific understanding not within the framework of the subject of economic theory, but on a much larger field of research. Moreover, the natural sciences – mathematics, biology, physics, etc. – are increasingly being used as a tool for analyzing economic and social phenomena. according to the rapidly changing subject of study.
Thus, economic theory, studying its subject, closely interacts with other humanities, as well as natural sciences.
Among the humanities with which economic theory interacts, we should highlight: history (general and economic), philosophy, sociology, political science, theory of the state, theory of law.
An integral part of the humanities (social) sciences are economic sciences. They are the product of a long historical development. With the development of productive forces and the deepening of the social division of labor, the process of cognition of economic phenomena went on, the sum of knowledge, economic concepts and categories was developed.
The development of economic sciences occurs through the differentiation and integration of knowledge. The differentiation of economic knowledge has formed the system of economic sciences. Each of the economic sciences received a specific subject of study.
In the process of development, it became necessary first to classify, and then to systematize scientific knowledge about the economy. There was a need to form a system of economic sciences.
In order to form a system of economic sciences, a common system-forming feature of economic sciences is needed. Finding it, isolating it is hard work. His search has been the subject of several economic discussions. The last discussion on the systematization of economic sciences ended in 1986 on the pages of the journal Voprosy ekonomiki.
The discussion showed that such a general criterion is the economy of labor, the economy of working time. All economic sciences study the forms of operation of the law of economy of time, the ways of the most economical satisfaction of people's needs. They solve one problem, how to obtain the maximum volume of production with the least expenditure of past and living labor, natural resources. It is interesting that the main scientific work of A. Smith is called "A Study on the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations." Figuratively speaking, economic theory is the science of ways to increase the wealth of people. For example, K. Marx considers the entire system of categories in Capital as a theory of costs and results of the capitalist mode of production.
The criterion of labor saving clearly defines the affiliation of a particular science to the system of economic sciences.
Other criteria for the systematization of economic sciences have also been put forward. For example:
- various social forms of the movement of matter (K. Ostrovityanov),
- several different criteria at once (A. Eremin, A. Khandruev).
The criterion for systematizing the economic sciences makes it possible to isolate the subject matter of each economic science.
It is impossible to identify the subject of economic theory with the subject of the entire system of economic sciences.
It cannot be assumed that all economic sciences have production relations as their direct object of study. This approach leads to the interpretation of sectoral and specific economies as sections of economic theory. And economic theory in this case appears as the entire system of economic sciences.
This approach has two significant drawbacks:
firstly, this leads to an underestimation of the role of economic theory, to its "dissolution" in a diverse set of economic sciences and knowledge,
secondly, it detracts from the importance of special economic disciplines, ignoring the specifics of their subject and the tasks they solve.
Economic theory is the science of industrial relations. It forms the core of the system of economic sciences, plays the role of a fundamental foundation in this system.
The subject of economic sciences as a whole is wider than the system of production relations due to two areas:
1) due to the area of ​​productive forces,
2) at the expense of the service sector.
What is meant here?
First, the subject of the entire system of economic sciences is economic relations, which are broader than relations of production. Economic relations include not only social production relations (the subject of study of economic theory), but also technical and production relations that are formed under the direct influence of productive forces (the subject of study of other economic sciences).
Secondly, through economic relations, productive forces, their social organization, social forms of using the environment, and social forms of functioning of the social sphere enter the subject of the entire system of economic sciences.
Thirdly, as we noted, the genetically system-wide feature of the economic sciences is associated with the general historical law of saving working time. This means that any labor activity, including in the service sector, has as its content the reduction of working time in order to obtain consumer benefits. Therefore, the directions of saving working time are reflected in all economic sciences, for example, in the economics of the service sector.
There is a fundamental possibility of systematizing the economic sciences according to several criteria. In any case, such attempts have been made in the economic literature.
Thus, in the monograph "System of Economic Sciences" (M.: Nauka, 1968), a three-term scheme for systematizing economic sciences is proposed.
In the three-term scheme, the following economic sciences are distinguished:
1) general economic sciences. They study the economic structure of society as a whole in theoretical or historical aspects. The general economic sciences include economic theory, the history of economic doctrines, the history of economic thought, and others;
2) special economic sciences. They study individual essential features or aspects of the economic system of society as a whole. These include such intersectoral and functional economic sciences as labor economics, finance, credit, population economics, environmental economics, planning, management, management, accounting, auditing, analysis of economic activity, economic statistics, economic and mathematical methods, economics of individual countries. , economics of regions, world economy and others;
3) branch economic sciences. They study the features (specifics) of the development of individual branches of macroeconomics. These include the economics of industry, the economics of agriculture, the economics of construction, the economics of transport, the economics of non-manufacturing sectors and the service sector, and others.
This systematization of economic sciences is carried out according to the logical principle of the correlation of the general, particular and singular. This approach is controversial and imprecise.
Economic theory studies the economic structure of society as a whole. At the same time, in the process of cognition, both the general, and the special, and the individual are present in unity.
At the same time, the subject of specific economies cannot be reduced to the study of the particular and the singular in economic relations. These sciences also study the general, particular and singular, but not the entire system of production (economic) relations, but only a certain part of them.
The scientific ratio of economic theory and other economic sciences is the ratio of the whole and the part, and not the general, particular and singular. The scientific correlation of the whole and the part corresponds to a two-term scheme of systematization of economic sciences. Within its framework, the following economic sciences are distinguished:
1) general economic sciences. These include economic theory, the history of economic doctrines, the history of economic thought, economic statistics, accounting, auditing, analysis of economic activity, economic and mathematical methods, and others;
2) specific (private) economic sciences. These include intersectoral (functional), sectoral and regional economies.
Both approaches to systematization place economic theory at the center of the system of economic sciences. Hence its special methodological significance for all economic sciences.
Of exceptional importance is the connection between economic theory and the natural sciences. This relationship is due to the following reasons.
The productive forces form the basis of production relations. Therefore, economic theory focuses on the trends in their development, on scientific and technological progress and, consequently, on achievements in the field of natural sciences.
On the basis of the development of natural science, there is an enrichment of general scientific methods of cognition in relation to economic theory. Methods borrowed by economic theory from natural science include:
- system-structural method of cognition,
– method of general systems theory,
– level method,
– process modeling method.
These methods are increasingly being used in economic theory. The separation of economic theory from the natural sciences is unacceptable. Economic theory, through the achievements of the natural sciences, must be turned to the needs of production. The dominance of the method of scientific abstraction, the strengthening of abstract logical constructions will lead economic theory away from objective economic reality. In the conditions of scientific and technological progress, the use of the results of the natural sciences becomes an objective need for production itself, for the entire system of economic sciences.
At present, science, including economics, is turning into the direct productive force of society. True, this thesis cannot be interpreted in the sense that science is allegedly being established as the initial, determining, leading factor in the development of the productive forces. In this understanding, the fundamental principle of historical materialism collapses, and the ground is created for reproaches only against science for the difficulties in introducing new technologies.
Enterprises of all forms of ownership must themselves experience strong internal motivations for scientific and technological progress. It should be remembered that the leading role of production itself, its needs for the technical re-equipment of enterprises and the increase in their efficiency.
The interconnected nature of economic and technical problems requires their comprehensive study. At the same time, it is necessary not to merge, but to cooperate with various sciences (humanitarian and natural) while maintaining their specialization. What is needed is not a simple, but a complex cooperation of sciences based on an interscientific division of labor. In such cooperation of economic and natural sciences, economic theory represents the methodological basis of humanitarian research.

1.3. Method of economic theory. Unity of the subject and method of economic theory

The knowledge of production relations and their reproduction in the system of laws and categories is ensured by the application of the scientific method of economic theory.
The word "method" (from the Greek methodos - "the path to a goal") means methods of cognition, tools, a set of methods for studying natural phenomena and social life. Each science has its own method, the features of which are inextricably linked with its subject. The method of science is designed to provide an ever deeper comprehension of the subject, it itself is born and improved in the course of obtaining new knowledge, to a certain extent the subject itself forms the method and, conversely, the research method used makes it possible to more clearly define the boundaries and content of the subject itself.
The scientific development of the method of economic theory goes back to the works of the ancient Greek scientist Aristotle (384-322 BC). He was the first to formulate the basic principles of cognition of economic and other forms of social life with the help of the science of the laws and forms of thinking - logic. The methods of cognition developed by Aristotle, such as analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, analogy, and others, are still widely used in the study of economic phenomena and processes. Of course, in the course of the development and complication of the subject of economic theory, the techniques and methods of its cognition, the methods of verifying the truth of the results obtained in the course of scientific analysis, were improved.
The methodology of economic theory is the science of methods for studying economic life and economic phenomena. It presupposes the existence of a common approach to the study of economic phenomena, a common understanding of reality, a single philosophical basis. The methodology is designed to help solve the main question: with the help of what scientific methods, methods of cognition of reality, economic theory achieves true coverage of the functioning and further development of a particular economic system. In the methodology of economic theory, there are several main approaches:
- subjective (from the standpoint of subjective idealism);
– non-positive-empirical (from the position of neo-positivist empiricism and skepticism);
- rationalistic;
- dialectical-materialistic.
With a subjective approach, the starting point for the analysis of economic phenomena is taken as an economic entity that affects the world around. Moreover, the sovereign “I” is absolutely independent, hence everyone is equal. The object of economic analysis is the behavior of the subject of the economy, and economic theory is therefore regarded as the science of human activity, determined by limited resources. The main category in this approach is need, utility. Economic theory becomes the theory of the choice made by the economic entity from various options.

Preface. 4

EDUCATIONAL DISCIPLINE "ECONOMIC THEORY". 5

Section I. Basic patterns of functioning of the economy. 5

Chapter 1. Economic theory: subject and method. 5

Chapter 2. Needs and resources. The problem of choice in economics. 8

Chapter 3. Economic systems. Market economy and its models. eleven

Section II. Fundamentals of microeconomics. 17

Chapter 4. Demand, supply and market equilibrium. Elasticity
supply and demand. 17

Chapter 5. Bases of behavior of subjects of market economy. 22

Chapter 6. Markets for factors of production. 31

Section III. Fundamentals of macroeconomics. 35

Chapter 7. Main macroeconomic indicators
and macroeconomic instability. 35

Chapter 8. Macroeconomic equilibrium in the commodity market. 45

Chapter 9. Equilibrium of the money market. Financial system. 53

Chapter 10. Macroeconomic policy. 61

Chapter 11. Economic growth. 66

Section IV. Fundamentals of International Economics. 69

Chapter 12. Modern world economy. 69

EDUCATIONAL DISCIPLINE "SOCIOLOGY". 78

Chapter 1. Society as a system. 78

Chapter 2. Social structure and stratification. 84

Chapter 3. Sociodynamics of society and culture: development,
progress, crisis. 91

Chapter 4. Family and marriage as a social institution. 95

Chapter 5. Religion as a socio-cultural phenomenon and social
institute. 99

Chapter 6. Sociological research. 102

FOREWORD

The teaching aid for the integrated module "Economics", which includes the disciplines "Economic Theory" and "Sociology", is intended for the preparation of students studying at the first stage of higher education in non-core specialties.

Economic and sociological education is an essential element of social and humanitarian education. The study of the integrated module "Economics" is aimed at obtaining interdisciplinary socio-economic knowledge necessary for the practical activities of future specialists - graduates of higher education.

The study of the compulsory disciplines "Economic Theory" and "Sociology" will allow future specialists to understand the socio-economic phenomena and processes taking place in the world and Belarusian society, and apply the knowledge gained in practical activities, form the skills of choosing effective management decisions, learn the causes of inequality, poverty and wealth, ethnic, economic and political conflicts.

Interdisciplinary connections in the integrated module of the disciplines "Economic Theory" and "Sociology" are predetermined by the specifics of the development of humanitarian knowledge at the present stage, namely, by the interdisciplinary approach in the study of socio-economic processes. The training of higher education personnel to solve the problem of innovative development and the formation of a "knowledge economy" involves the implementation of the model of a modern specialist in the framework of a competency-based approach based on a holistic systemic worldview for professional analysis of processes and phenomena
in the economy and society.

This teaching aid has been developed in accordance with the experimental curriculum of the integrated module "Economics" for institutions of higher education, recommended by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus.

EDUCATIONAL DISCIPLINE "ECONOMIC THEORY"

SECTION I. MAIN REGULARITIES
THE FUNCTIONING OF THE ECONOMY

Chapter 1. Economic Theory: Subject and Method

1.1. Economy as a sphere of society's life. Production process.

1.2. Subject, functions and sections of economic theory. Economic policy.

1.3. Methods of economic theory. Economic laws and categories.

Key concepts: economics, production, microeconomics, macroeconomics, international economics.

1.1. Economy as a sphere of life
society. Production process

The term " economy" is used in different meanings.

Firstly, economy called the real economic activity of enterprises or households. The economy as the national economy of the country includes branches of material production (industry, agriculture, construction, transport) and non-productive spheres (education, health care, marketing services). Secondly, under economy imply a science that studies a given economic activity.

The main purpose of the economy is the creation of economic benefits: consumer goods (food, clothing, etc.) and means of production (technology, raw materials, energy, etc.). Therefore, production is the main component of the economy. Under production understand the process of creating economic benefits necessary for the existence and development of society.

In any production process there are the following components: objects of labor, means of labor, labor.

Objects of labor- this is everything that a person influences in the process of labor. These are minerals that have been previously exposed to labor (ore, oil) and are called raw materials.

Means of labor- these are the things with the help of which a person acts on the objects of labor. The totality of means of labor and objects of labor is means of production.

Work- this is the activity of people aimed at the production of material and spiritual goods to satisfy their needs. Therefore, labor is the activity of people with certain skills and abilities.

Subject, functions and sections of economic theory. Economic policy

The development of economic relations in society led to the division of the economy as a science into a number of economic sciences. Modern economic sciences can be divided into are common And private. General economic sciences reveal the main patterns of the functioning of the economy (general economic theory); private– sectoral features and functions of economic management (statistical theory, sectoral economics, marketing, etc.).

Economic theory is a social science that studies economic relations in the process of reproduction of material goods and services. The subject of economic theory shows what it studies. Economic theory does not study production as such, but social relations between people in the process of production, i.e. subject of economic theory are economic relations that develop in the process of social development.

General economic theory performs a number functions:

1) methodological: economic theory is the theoretical foundation of a number of specific economic sciences (finance, credit, statistics, marketing);

2) cognitive: economic theory allows you to know and explain real economic processes;

3) practical: economic theory scientifically substantiates the economic policy of the state;

4) prognostic: economic theory provides a basis for the development of scientific forecasts for the development of the economy.

Under economic policy understand the development of specific programs to achieve the economic goals of society. Economic goals at the macro level: striving for full employment of the population; stable price level; sustainable economic growth; equilibrium of the foreign trade balance; economic efficiency; fair distribution of income in society. Economic goals at the micro level are the efficient use of limited resources.

Economic theory as a science includes the following sections: microeconomics which studies the behavior of individual economic entities (consumer, producer), resource market; macroeconomics, which examines the national economy as a whole; world economy, which explores the most important forms of international economic relations (international trade, capital movement, labor migration, etc.).

1.3. Methods of economic science. Economic
laws and categories

To reveal the essence of phenomena, economic science uses a number of methods. Methods are a set of rules, methods and techniques of research.

General scientific methods express universal general scientific principles and methods of research. They include method of scientific abstraction(distraction from everything secondary and random); analysis and synthesis; induction and deduction; unity of historical and logical(finding out first how the event happened, and then why it happened).

Private research methods characteristic of a particular science: graphic, statistical, mathematical; modeling; comparative analysis; economic experiment, etc.

economic modeling- formalized (logically, graphically and algebraically) description of economic processes to identify functional relationships between them.

economic experiment- artificial reproduction of an economic phenomenon in order to test the effectiveness of planned measures or to prove the correctness of an economic hypothesis.

Limit (margin) analysis is used to search for conditions under which economic indicators take maximum or minimum values ​​(profit maximization, loss minimization).

functional analysis involves identifying the interconnections of economic processes and phenomena along the "horizontal", i.e., it does not raise the question of what is primary and what is secondary, but reveals how one value changes depending on the change in another.

Equilibrium Analysis applied to the study of dynamic economic phenomena and involves the search for conditions under which the relative stability of the economic system is achieved (for example, equality of supply and demand).

The main task of economic theory is to identify and analyze the relationship between economic phenomena and economic laws.

economic laws- objective, constantly repeating relationships and interdependencies of a causal nature inherent in economic phenomena and processes. Economic categories- theoretical scientific concepts of real-life socio-economic relations (money, wages, price, profit, demand, supply, credit).

Chapter 2. Needs and resources.
The problem of choice in economics

2.1. Economic needs and economic benefits: their characteristics and classifications.

2.2. Resources and factors of production.

2.3. The problem of choice in economics. Production possibilities of society.

Key concepts: needs, resources, factors of production, production possibilities of society.

Vladislav Feldblum

Interdisciplinary general economic theory in action

(electronic version of the book)

http://i41.tinypic.com/55m443.jpg
Yaroslavl - 2015

The author of the book, doctor of chemical sciences, professor, for many years independently studied political economy and industrial economics, mathematical economics, higher and applied mathematics, history, philosophy, psychology and other scientific disciplines. His goal was to take a fresh approach to solving an important and complex problem - to create a general theory of socio-economic development. As is known, the first attempt of this kind was made in their works by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, but this problem could not be solved by the scientific means of that time and on the basis of only previous historical experience. Now it has become possible. This required non-trivial approaches and research at the intersection of sciences, the application of the methods of natural science and mathematics in the humanities, the analysis of additional historical experience from the time of Marx and Engels to the present day. The result was the creation of an interdisciplinary general economic theory, which is the subject of this book. The new theory can be viewed as a continuation and generalization of the economic teachings of Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall, Wassily Leontiev and other prominent economists in relation to modern historical conditions. The author not only sets out his theory, but also shows how it "works", to what extent its results, conclusions and forecasts are confirmed in practice, in real life. The book deals with topical issues of Russia's foreign and domestic policy. The concept of a new humane society is put forward and substantiated, to which, in the author's opinion, the country will come, subject to the continued implementation of optimal state policy.

The book is addressed to politicians, scientists, public figures and, of course, to all those who want to understand the objective laws of socio-economic development, who are not indifferent to the fate of our country and the prospects for its development in the modern world.

For my 80th birthday and 20th anniversary of my book

"Toward a general economic theory through the interaction of sciences" (1995)
Author

"We need economists like Niels Bohr, de Broglie, Heisenberg and Dirac to reconstruct or revolutionize economic theory in the same way that these people revolutionized physical theory"

Gardiner Means

Introduction…………………………………………………………….8

Chapter 1. Fundamentals of an interdisciplinary general economic

theory……………………………………………………………….9

1. 
   On the subject of interdisciplinary general economic theory...10
2. 
   Political economy and natural science……………………….11
3. 
   Political Economy and Mathematics…………………………...13
4. 
   On the analogy of natural and social processes…………...16
5. 
   The labor process and its unusual analogy………………………..19
6. 
   Animated production function……………………...25
7. 
   macroeconomic balance. revolutionary situation

in the language of mathematics…………………………………………………29

1. 
   productive forces, production relations and

general economic law……………………………………...31

1. 
   Labor motivation as the basis of industrial relations ... ..33
2. 
   Scientific and technological progress……………………………… 38
3. 
   Socio-economic formations……………………..45
4. 
   Primitive, slaveholding and feudal

society…………………………………………………………..52

1. 
   Early capitalism……………………………………………….55
2. 
   Modern capitalism……………………………………..61

- Capitalism as a diverse system………………. 62

Curbing the market element……………………………65

Macroeconomic regulation…………………..68

Humanization of labor …………………………………………76

Scientific and technological progress…………………………..79

Legacy of early capitalism………………………….80

Basic economic law……………………… 82

1. 
   Socialism and Communism……………………………………………85

- Socialism in the interdisciplinary general economic

theory……………………………………………………….86

Communism in the interdisciplinary general economic

theory……………………………………………………….88

The economic paradox of communism…………………93

The Soviet version of socialism…………………………94

Perestroika…………………………………………………100

1. 
   Russia at the Crossroads……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Chapter 2. Toward a new humane society: a program for Russia

2.1 Scientific basis of the program……………………………………………………………………146

Karl Marx……………………………………………………….148

Interdisciplinary general economic theory and

Economics……………………………………………………154

Ideology and science……………………………………………..154

2.2 About “Strategy 2020” and “Strategy XXI”…………………………155

2.3 The new humane society is not capitalism…………………… 165

2.4 The new humane society is neither socialism nor communism……169

2.5 The new humane society is not a “post-industrial

Society”…………………………………………………………..175

2.6 Towards a new humane society………………………………… 178

2.7 Program for Russia: strategy and tactics……………………. 181

2.8 Program for Russia: the pace and quality of the economic

growth…………………………………………………………………184

2.9 Program for Russia: principles of optimal policy……..207

State building and power efficiency….209

Demographic policy…………………………………...212

Economic policy……………………………………...216

Inflation and competition with Russian specifics……….218

Fight against corruption…………………………………………..222

Social Policy………………………………………….224

Agrarian policy……………………………………………….225

Monetary and tax policy…………………..226

Housing policy…………………………………………..227

Healthcare………………………………………………228

Science and education…………………………………………..229

Youth policy………………………………………...230

Import substitution as an urgent task of industrial,

agricultural and scientific and technical policy…………………..231

Foreign policy and defense of the country…………237
Instead of a conclusion: answers to the main questions of my

readers…………………………………………………………...241

List of literary sources……………………………..243

Application…………………………………………………………..250

Foreword

The passion for knowledge is the source of high joys,

reserved for noble souls.
Gustave Flaubert

On the eve of the eightieth birthday, it's time to take stock of the life path. I'm very lucky! No, I did not win a million, did not get a pile of property or a lot of money. I did not become a boss, an academician, an honored worker or an honorary member. I am an ordinary professor. But I have something more than many have ever had: I was lucky to experience those high joys that the great Flaubert spoke about.

I was lucky in the main thing: fate allowed me to live with a clear conscience. I did not please, did not beg for indulgences and privileges. He did not waste his time and energy in search of profit, in acquiring the necessary acquaintances, in intrigues and all that, without which he could not break into the powers that be. Of course, he was not always completely frank, he did not cut the truth, but he did not lie, did not flatter, did not grovel. He didn’t do mean things to anyone, but he didn’t forgive when they dirty me. People will have my books, inventions, publications in magazines, articles on the Internet. I experienced the joys of love and friendship, scientific discoveries, sincere respect from subordinates, education of young scientists, communication with students, meetings and joint work with very interesting people.

As a chemist and technologist, I managed to do everything that I had planned. But fate gave me a surprise: I became interested in research at the intersection of sciences, the creation of a modern general economic theory, a new political economy, interdisciplinary and mathematical in nature. In this field, I managed to do something that I did not even expect from myself. I did not limit myself to scientific research and contributed to social practice, influenced the entire course of our lives.

I didn't advertise it. It was only thanks to many years of secrecy that I managed for decades to work with concentration on an important and complex problem, without interference, without looking back at anyone, without asking anyone for permission. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to do anything. I would not be able to check for a sufficiently long time how my general economic theory works, whether the theory is consistent with practice, whether my conclusions and forecasts are confirmed by real life. It turned out - confirmed! This is my main result. I worked like an ox, gave it my all, without demanding anything in return. People will still remember me and maybe say thank you.

Introduction
The book offered to readers is the final one in a kind of "trilogy". In 1995, my book “Toward a General Economic Theory through the Interaction of Sciences” was published in Yaroslavl. It was published in a small edition, very modestly. It did not go on sale, the entire circulation was donated to libraries, research institutes, universities, public organizations and individuals. I received letters of thanks from libraries, many readers expressed their opinions, criticisms and questions. I tried to answer everyone. The main thing that interested readers was how it happened that the chemist came to political economy. I answered it in the second book, Invasion of the Immutable: The Chemist's Path to Political Economy. The book was published in 2007 and posted online. And now this, the third book. The main motive for writing it was the numerous requests from readers to tell how they could get acquainted with the first book. What could be done to help them? After all, the first book has become a bibliographic rarity.

I have tried to fill this gap in this third book. It consists of two chapters. The first chapter sets out the foundations of an interdisciplinary general economic theory, on which I have been working for almost thirty years and still continue this work. This chapter, in fact, is a revised and expanded version of the first book. The analysis of the problem has been brought to our days. For the purpose of simplification, a part of the mathematical apparatus has been excluded. The list of used literature has been significantly expanded: it includes references both to the fundamental works of the classics of a hundred or two hundred years ago, and to publications of the most recent time. The list of references to foreign publications has been expanded. Many references to journal articles of an unprincipled nature are excluded from the list, preference is given to domestic and foreign scientific monographs covering certain major problems of economics, sociology, and politics.

The second chapter is, in fact, an illustration of the application of an interdisciplinary general economic theory to understanding the modern history of Russia. Unlike natural science, where the correctness of scientific conclusions can be verified by setting up a scientific experiment, in the humanities, the reliability and adequacy of scientific theories can be assessed mainly by the extent to which they are confirmed by social practice, life. This thesis became the leitmotif of the second chapter. It shows how the interdisciplinary general economic theory "works". Moreover, the concept of a new humane society and the principal program for its creation in our country are proposed. I am aware of the debatability of my views. My duty is to state them with arguments, and not to make them believe in them.

Chapter 1. Fundamentals of an interdisciplinary general economic theory

1. 
   On the subject of interdisciplinary general economic theory

For the purposes of this book, first of all, it is important to clarify three questions: What is the subject of an interdisciplinary general economic theory? How objective are the results of this study? Are the research methods used in natural science and mathematics applicable in an interdisciplinary general economic theory?

Soviet textbooks of political economy for many years guided readers to the definition of Friedrich Engels from Anti-Dühring: “Political economy, in the broadest sense, is the science of the laws that govern the production and exchange of material goods of life in human society.” In his opinion, political economy first investigates the specific laws of each individual stage in the development of production, and only "at the end of this study can it establish a few, completely general laws applicable to production and exchange in general." Developing this idea, Engels explains that such a theory "has yet to be created," and for the time being economic science "is limited almost exclusively to the genesis and development of the capitalist mode of production."

So, Engels believed in the possibility of creating a general economic theory, calling it political economy "in the broadest sense." Karl Marx spoke no less optimistically on this issue: “There is no doubt that human production in all forms has certain immutable laws or relations. This identity is quite simple and can be summed up in very few generalities. Marx was convinced that subsequently natural science and the science of man would become "one science".

Alfred Marshall was less optimistic about the prospects for creating a general economic theory. In his opinion, "a unified social science, although desirable, is not achievable."

In Soviet times, it was only in the course of perestroika that the need to create an integral general economic theory, revealing patterns common to the entire civilization, was recognized. As academician V.A. Medvedev rightly noted, modern political economy is already unthinkable without general economic theory as its basis. In the textbook of political economy, it was for the first time stated with all certainty that in the time of Marx, Engels and Lenin, the analysis of general economic laws was not as relevant as in modern conditions, and "to a certain extent it would be premature." In modern conditions, the disclosure of general economic patterns "has become an urgent need, because this allows us to consider social development as a single world process." It was also recognized that "modern science has accumulated a sufficiently large stock of knowledge to identify and formulate these laws." Unfortunately, this awareness of the need and possibility of creating a general economic theory was not backed up by concrete deeds. Too great was the inertia of thinking of those who at that time made the difference in official social science. It remains too big in the way of thinking of their followers. The verbally proclaimed need for an interdisciplinary approach to solving a new complex problem is hardly perceived in practice.

Speaking about the importance of knowledge, general economic laws, it is necessary to immediately answer the question of whether these laws are really objective, independent of the will and consciousness of people. On the one hand, economic laws are the laws of human activity, and any human activity is a conscious activity. On the other hand, it is argued that economic laws are objective. Is there a contradiction here? “Of course there is a contradiction here. Where is he not? Another thing is important: both the statements made are true, ”wrote academician L.I. Abalkin. Although the Soviet academician's book on the economic laws of socialism may raise objections from today's standpoint, his profound statement of the objective nature of economic laws is absolutely correct. Each person acts quite consciously. He improves technology, produces and exchanges products. During this activity, he interacts with other people. As a result, a system of social relations and connections arises that no longer depends on the consciousness of people and develops according to its own objective laws.

What is the subject of an interdisciplinary general economic theory? Engels's definition of the subject matter of political economy given above is by no means the only one. Many authors gave other definitions that focus on certain features of economic activity. Against the general background, the formulation proposed by Marshall in his fundamental book, first published in 1890, seems very valuable. Defining the essence of the subject of political economy as a science, he writes: “Economics is the study of how people exist, develop and what they think about in their daily lives. But the subject of her research is mainly those motives that have the strongest and most stable effect on human behavior in the economic sphere of his life. Thus, Marshall, unlike Engels, directly includes the psychological aspect in the sphere of economic theory. In his opinion, "in search of key motives for the development of human history, we should turn to the study of the forms of labor efforts and human activity" . Not everyone agreed with this approach. For example, the French economist Emile Jams believed that "the psychological motivation of human actions does not belong to the subject of economic theory."

It seems that Marshall's definition is just as correct as Engels' definition. They do not contradict, but complement each other. Each of them characterizes one aspect of social production. Therefore, it is best to combine them. But this is not enough. As will be shown later, the socio-economic system, the direction of its development, and those fundamental changes that are commonly called social revolutions depend on the method of labor motivation. Moreover, as the reader will see later, Marshall's notion of the determining role of "incentives" is consistent with the modern analysis of the concept of "labor" given by Marx in the first volume of Capital. Based on the foregoing, we can assume that the interdisciplinary general economic theory is the science of labor and methods of its motivation, the most general laws of production and distribution of material goods, and socio-economic formations in the history of mankind.