6 Heterodox Economics
Roberts
There are economists who have serious criticisms of mainstream market economics. There is what we can call the heterodox schools of economics – the term meaning what it says, outside the orthodox mainstream. Within this broad strand, these economists highlight the irrational behaviour of markets and the inherent instability of the market economy. They include the Marxist school which argues the market economy will always have crises that cannot be resolved by the market and so the market economy (called capitalism by Marxists) needs to be replaced by a planned economy based on common ownership of all producers.
The heterodox school is very critical of the mainstream. Indeed, almost exactly six years ago, leading heterodox economists held a seminar right here at the LSE on the state of mainstream economics, as taught in the universities. They kicked this off by nailing a poster with 33 theses critiquing mainstream economics to the door of this building. (You can google it). It was the 500th anniversary of when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Castle Church, Wittenberg which provoked the beginning of the Protestant reformation against the ‘one true religion’ of Catholicism.
The heterodox economists were telling us that mainstream economics was like Catholicism and must be protested against as Luther did back in 1517. As they put it, “Economics is broken. From climate change to inequality, mainstream (neoclassical) economics has not provided the solutions to the problems we face and yet it is still dominant in government, academia and other economic institutions. It is time for a new economics.”