New issue of Journal of Australian Political Economy

Journal of Australian Political Economy (JAPE) is a principal outlet for political economy articles in Australia. It has been running for over thirty years and has a strong reputation for providing alternatives to mainstream economics, presenting analyses of Australian and international/global contemporary political economic developments. Issues of the journal are published twice a year.

The new Summer 2014/2015 issue begins with an article by Leo Panitch on ‘Whose Crisis: Capital , Labour and the State Today’, based on the Wheelwright lecture that he presented to a huge audience at the University of Sydney in September of this year. Other articles with an international reach (and overseas authorship) are by Collin Constantine on ‘Rethinking the Twin Deficits’ and Sheng Li on ‘Economic Structure, Cost Outsourcing and Global Imbalances’.

Also featured is Chris Sheil’s assessment of ‘Piketty’s Political Economy’, considering the pros and cons of the blockbuster book Capital in the Twenty First Century. It has been a long time (if ever) since a big, statistics-based economics book created such phenomenal interest, so a careful assessment like this is important. Chris Lloyd and Tony Ramsay follow on by looking at recent Australian publications addressing ‘Macroeconomic Prosperity and Social Inclusion’. Their review article turns into a reflection on what it would take to have economic policies that deliver economic progress with due regard to  social equity. Without some such policy shift the political economic forces identified by Piketty can be expected to create  more deeply entrenched inequalities in Australia, as in other countries.

Showing the range of political economic concerns, the latest issue of JAPE also includes an article assessing Australian literature – specifically, War Crimes by Peter Carey – from  a political economic perspective, that of the French regulation school. Reflecting a more policy-oriented and prescriptive tradition within political economy, Troy Henderson looks at ‘The Four Day Workweek as a Policy Option for Australia. There are book reviews and notes on twelve recent political economy books too.

To see the latest JAPE issue free online , and for information about the modest cost of subscribing to the hardcopy journal, go to www.jape.org

The next issue of JAPE will be no 75. This three quarter century (not out) innings will  be  marked by the publication of a double-sized themed issue on the state of Heterodox Economics. It will look at the currents within heterodox economics that challenge orthodox economics – Marxian, post-Keynesian, environmental, feminist, and work in the tradition of Karl Polanyi, for example. It will also feature discussions of teaching and broader community education in political economy.