Economic Systems
The competing frameworks through which societies have organized production, distribution, and power
No economy is purely one thing. Every actual economic system is a hybrid -- a layering of institutions, incentives, regulations, and power relationships accumulated over time. The ideological labels (capitalism, socialism, liberalism) name tendencies and emphases, not pure categories. But understanding the intellectual traditions behind those labels is essential to understanding what different actors want, why they want it, and whose interests each framework serves.
Mercantilism
The doctrine that trade surpluses were national power and colonies existed to supply raw materials for metropolitan industry.
Classical Liberalism
Smith and Ricardo argued that free markets, not mercantile regulation, produced the greatest wealth -- for some.
Industrial Capitalism
The factory system transformed the relationship between capital and labor in ways classical theory struggled to comprehend.
Socialism and Communism
The great counter-tradition: from Owen's cooperatives to Marx's Capital to the Soviet experiment.
Keynesianism
After the Depression proved that markets could fail catastrophically, Keynes argued that states had both the right and obligation to intervene.
Neoliberalism
The post-1970s restoration of market supremacy -- rebranded as efficiency, armed with economic theory, and implemented with political force.
Comparative Performance
What do the numbers actually show about which systems deliver growth, equality, and human welfare?