Introduction: Varieties of Political Economy: Theories and Case Studies

Abstract

Volume 10, issue 1 of Genocide Studies International is a special issue on the political economy of genocide. The editors of Genocide Studies International do their best to examine issues on the “cutting edge” of genocide studies. In pursuit of this goal we attempt to cover topics, which have been, at least in our estimation, not examined in detail, and which we believe deserve greater attention in the literature. This is one of those topics. While there is at least one recent book that directly examines the political economy of genocide, Garry Leech’s, Capitalism: A Structural Genocide, which is reviewed in this issue, it follows the all too familiar pattern of assuming that any discussion of political economy involves a certain paradigm. In fact, the mere mention of “political economy” brings forth numerous images in the minds of readers and researchers. First and foremost, it is most likely that the term brings forth images of Marxist analysis or neo-Marxist critiques of existing literature. This is unfortunate since there exists a large variety of theories and approaches to the study of political economy. That is the very reason we start the present issue with an exploration of the varieties of approaches to the study of political economy in general and the political economy of genocide in particular. It is important to not allow oneself to get sidetracked into thinking that there is a single, dominant accepted approach to the study of political economy. The wide range of definitions—all the way from rational choice theory to Marxist critiques of capitalism are explained in the first article by William Newmann, “Introduction to Political Economy: Theories and Applications.” Newmann notes: