This paper explores the manner in which differing languages and conceptualisations of civil society figured in the early development of economic thought. It begins with a consideration of the understanding of civil society in the mercantilist literature and proceeds to examine the rise and...

Few issues are more central to our present predicaments than the relationship between economics and politics. In the century after Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations the British economy was transformed. After Adam Smith looks at how politics and political economy were articulated and altered. It...

Few deny that the work of economists has often embodied or stimulated significant contributions to political thought. Smith, Keynes, Hayek, and Friedman are good examples. However, the work of the great classical economist David Ricardo is not usually placed in such company. Despite Ricardo's...