POLITICAL-ECONOMY, THE AGRARIAN QUESTION AND THE COMPARATIVE METHOD

This is the text of an. inaugural Lecture, given at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, on 28 October 1994. In it the case for classical political economy, and especially its Marxist variant as a means of analysing the problems of economic development, is argued. Three major preoccupations of classical political economy are identified: accumulation, class and the stare. The agrarian question is considered, and the significance of these in its analysis is posited. With the agrarian question in mind, the importance of the comparative method is urged. Some problems associated with the comparative method are considered, and, in the political economy context, the strength of the case-oriented rather than the variable-oriented variant of the comparative approach is stressed.