Economic theory - a systematic, scientific presentation of the activities of people through categories, patterns, laws, represented by certain concepts. She studies the laws, patterns of development of economic activity, is the methodological and theoretical basis of other sciences.
Functions
Various authors distinguish various functions of economics as a science, among which:
1. Scientific and educational.
Two aspects are distinguished here:
- Using facts, evidence, propositions, analyzing reality, she develops scientific concepts;
- in the provisions, concepts, categories, laws, patterns of development are revealed, which allows you to learn the essence of production, distribution, exchange and consumption.
2. Critical.
Science always in the process of research is faced with various approaches, judgments, decisions. Therefore, forming a certain concept, it should approach the provisions critically, proving their value or failure.
3. Economic and practical (sometimes it is called simply pragmatic).
The essence of this function of the economy is that it should help achieve real results by stimulating the development of social production. But one must keep in mind that economic theory does not set itself the task of teaching people how to sow, build houses, and produce oil. This is the task of other specific sciences - agriculture, construction and the rest. The functions of economic science are to create methods for solving various economic problems.
4. Predictive.
Studying and systematizing the processes taking place in the world, revealing laws, categories, patterns, it allows you to predict further development, which makes it possible to more fully take into account the needs, more efficient use of resources.
5. Methodological.
The essence of this function of the economy is that this science is the basis for determining the position of each subject, the direction of social development (market, socialism, post-industrial system), depending on which problems are given a concrete assessment.
6. Educational function.
It consists in the formation of certain views, worldview on issues that affect the interests of society. This function acquires special significance in the conditions of deideologization of science and all spheres of public life.
According to another approach, the functions of the economy include the following:
- organization of production, ensuring economic growth;
- efficiency;
- full employment;
- economic freedom;
- stable price level;
- security;
- trade balance;
- habitat conservation;
- fair distribution of income.
Subject
In modern textbooks, two trips to the subject are noted. According to a positive economy, it consists in explaining the essence of ongoing processes and phenomena, as well as developing recommendations for the implementation of policies based on analysis of real practice (building models free of subjective judgments). According to normative economics, the subject determines the principles of economic behavior that serve as the basis for evaluating performance (subjective judgments about how it should be).
Thus, speaking about what the subject, method and functions of economic theory are, it should be said that this is a science of how society uses limited resources to produce material and spiritual goods and distributes them among different groups of the population. So, it is fair to say that economic theory is a science that studies what to produce, how to produce, for whom to produce.