Abstract

Three major issues of Benedetto Croce's view of political economy are discussed. 1) The role of history vs. natural order (or equilibrium) in the economic discourse: the belief in a natural order, ensured by the market's capacity for self-regulation, introduces a determinist element into the analysis and suggests that the normal state of the economic system is equilibrium. 2) The reduction of political economy to economics: i.e. the shift from a science conceived and discussed using ordinary language to a tecnique conceived and expressed in mathematical form. 3) The so-called marxian law of a falling rate of profit, which is not - as Croce maintains - a determinist law.