Politics, Economics, and Political Economy

Having completed my Master's degree and continuing to be relatively reflexive on my education, abilities, knowledge, and skills. I find it interesting to note how often I will start with questions such as "what economic policies are best for country x" and end with questions like "what institutional regime permits certain policies to work and not others". The former is obviously a very economic-centric question while the latter is a very politically-centric question.

The reason the two often become so easily crossed in my mind is because of the types of sub-fields I'm interested in. In economics, I'm concerned with macroeconomic policy, especially development policy (i.e. fiscal and monetary policy, etc). Invariably, macro-policy is dependant on politics and, therefore, political science enters the scene.

The problem is, it makes it hard to have a debate. One can't simply come down with an opinion of whether stimulus should be halted. The timeless economics response becomes "it depends". It depends on whether we are discussing the US, Spain, or Thailand. It depends on how the stimulus was put into place, the cultural response that people will likely give, the autonomy of the government in power and whether they are will to risk a period of slow down in lieu of longer-term stability.

This is what makes economic questions political and what makes the study of the two together an opportunity for a spectacular synergy.