Political Economy

Rethinking Britain presents a range of ideas from some of the country’s most influential thinkers, offering solutions which, if implemented, would lead to a fairer society. This book is an essential aid for citizens who are interested in critiquing inequalities while looking to build a better future.

UK and US pension policy expects consistently informed decision-making in finance. Deviating from this is often deemed “irrational”, ignoring uncontrollable factors in individuals’ lives.

Challenging existing policy approaches, this book proposes a fresh perspective on rationality when it comes to financial policy and practices.

Ricardo’s Dream tells the fascinating story of David Ricardo, Adam Smith’s only real rival as the ‘founder of economics’: who introduced the study of abstract models to economics. He also developed the theory of trade that underpinned globalization and hides a history of power, empire and slavery.

This book scrutinises the narratives created around stealing jobs, opening new debates on the role of automation and migration policies. The authors reveal how the advances in AI and demands for constant flow of immigrant workers eradicate political and working rights, propagating fears over job theft and ownership.

Positioning social policy within political economy and social contract debates, Wistow draws on empirical evidence to show how the social contract produces longstanding inequitable consequences in relation to health, place and social mobility in England.

Carrie Manning’s illuminating book examines how policies to limit taxation at state and local levels in the US have direct and lasting consequences for equity, accountability, and ultimately for democracy.

Capitalism only celebrates success, and it can be difficult to know what to do when it is confronted with failure. This book explores what happens when people go broke, and what the experience of bankruptcy and insolvency is like up close.

We now enjoy the highest living standard in history yet spend more of our income on pointless luxury. Instead, we should tax more in order to invest much more in societal needs, which will in turn reinvigorate the economy and reduce economic inequality and environmental degradation.

Academics from a range of disciplines and from a number of European and Latin American countries come together to question what it means to have a ‘sustainable society’ and to ask what role alternative social and solidarity economies can play.

This book offers a theory of trafficking and modern slavery with implications for policy. Going beyond polarised debates on the sex trade, this book shows the importance of coercion and the societal complexities that perpetuate modern slavery.

This book explores the relationship between the state and war within the context of seismic technological change. Through its analysis, the book questions what will happen to war and the state and whether we will reach a point where war leads to the unmaking of the state itself.

The Western Ideology brings together for the first time Andrew Gamble’s writings on political ideas and ideologies, which illustrate the main themes of his writing in intellectual history and the history of ideas, including economic liberalism and neoliberalism, and critiques from both social democratic and conservative perspectives.