This paper goes through the main classical authors’ positions on the virtues and the limitations of both competition and socialism. The first section retrieves the evolution of socialistic ideas in England until the first half of the nineteenth century, highlighting Owen’s thesis. After...

This paper deals with the debate which opposed Sismondi and the Ricardian economists, in the first half of the nineteenth century, on the equilibrium of markets, the role of competition and the effects of machinery in industrial societies. At the initial section, the main content of Sismondi?s...

This article explores why Smith's work is a turning point in the history of economic thought. The constitution of an economic discourse and the delimitation of the economy sphere are attributed to: i) the specific nature of Smith's moral philosophy; ii) his way of conceiving economic action as...

This paper analyses J.S. Mill?s conceptions on what would be the proper form of government and the proper scope of State intervention in economic life. It is argued that, for Mill, the answer depended on the type of society in question. In ?backward? societies, in which the population...

The main reasons presented in The Wealth of Nations to advocate the system of economic liberty and reject mercantilism are analysed. These two systems are evaluated considering basically their impact on the annual product, and the degree of liberty and justice they engender. Based on his views...

The debate on the alleged moral and political benefits of infant capitalism - as worked out in the now classical pieces by Louis Dumont, Pierre Rosanvallon and Albert Hirschman - concludes with the identification of a justification for the new order based on its expected positive effects on...

This paper examines the classical economists’ views on the virtues and limitations of competition contrasted with the projects of socialism existent at the time. The first section retrieves the evolution of socialistic doctrines in England and France until the first half of the nineteenth...

The crisis in (financial) markets led to the failure of orthodoxy and should bring out a new theoretical and methodological framework to Economics. This essay discusses what is Economics and if it needs to move away from its normative dimension to assert itself as a producer of scientific...

This is a discussion about the recent trends in the field of economic methodology. I argue that methodologists now agree that the evaluation of economic theories based on universal fixed rules has proven to be sterile. Instead, they tend to focus the methodological options actually made by...