(Tom Palmer, Director of Cato University and Director of Jack Byrne Project on Middle East Liberty)
Tom gave a wonderful and detailed introduction to the concept of political economy, and some basic principles that can be employed when looking at socio-economic issues. He defined “political economy” as the acknowledgement that politics and economy are inter-related and cannot be separated.
His presentation was quite technical in nature but he also supplied a paper to elaborate his ideas. It is difficult to summarize his points and, in fact, it would be unfair to summarize what was a very long and intellectual discussion. But, these are a few things that I found most interesting:
- In a free society, rules matter. Rules can influence the outcome and sometimes the rules have a huge impact on the outcome.
- Rules can be chosen
- Society may not be a rational chooser.
Filed under: Freedom & Liberty
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