In order to overcome the limits of the existing political economy which analyses economic phenomenon by the concept of relations of production on the level of mode of production, theoretical innovation such as establishment of new methodology of polit ...
In order to overcome the limits of the existing political economy which analyses economic phenomenon by the concept of relations of production on the level of mode of production, theoretical innovation such as establishment of new methodology of political economy is needed. The new methodology can be established through the research program of extensive and intensive expansion of political economy. The extensive expansion of political economy is to expand the focus of analysis of Marxian political economy from production relations to institutions and further to individuals. The intensive expansion of political economy is to expand the scope of analysis of Marxian political economy from the mode of production to the way of life and further to the conditions of production. In the process of the expansion the political economy meets the methodologies of the other economics and the methodological fusion named 'hybridization' occurred. In the process of extensive expansion acceptability of the methodologies of institutional economics, evolutionary economics, complexity economics and game theory into the political economy was discussed. In the process of intensive expansion the methodologies of Autonomist Marxism, Nomadism, theory of civil society, and gender economics were introduced.
On the basis of the methodologies we have analysed the phenomenon and contradictions of the four main tendencies, that is, globalization, finance-led accumulation regime, neoliberalism, and knowledge-based economy. And we clarified the aspects of economic crisis, ecological crisis, and life crisis occurred from the contradictions. As the globalization proceeds the 'empire' is emerging and social cost of multinationals is imputed to host countries through the threat effects of capital, Finance-led accumulation regime brought about financial crisis due to system risk and deepened the instability and inequality of the capitalism. Digital economy changed the mode of labor fundamentally. And knowledge-based economy requires implementation of separate skill formation system according to the characteristics of skill. As the neoliberalism prevails, ecological crisis is intensifying and the communities are being broken up. Coping with the neoliberalism, community-oriented social economy is emerging. Neoliberal capitalism containing finance-led accumulation regime is not sustainable economically, socially, and environmentally due to severe instability, high inequality, and high social cost.
The vision of alternative development model beyond the neoliberalism can be summarized as follows: orientation toward the basic value such as participation, solidarity, and ecology, democratic market economy in which major socio-economic problems are settled by the social agreements among the labor, management, and government. knowledge-led accumulation regime based on the human resources with creativity, participatory democracy through which governance and grass-roots autonomy are realized, anti-Taylorism which unifies conception with execution in the labor process. With this vision, the policy programs as follows are necessary: innovation-led shared growth regime by a policy combination of 'decentralization-innovation-integration', solidaristic skill policy for decreasing skill gap and overcoming the labor market polarization, workfare and alternative employment model toward post-wage-labor society, social economy for job creation and welfare community which supplies social services, global financial governance with democratic and social orientation, financial system for economic growth and stability, reform of corporate governance and ownership structures toward the employee stock ownership plan and stakeholder model, information welfare society for overcoming information inequality, care economy for environmentally and female-friendly harmonious life, participatory democracy by improving competition structure of the political market.