A survey of 15 college economic principles texts revealed a startling lack of uniformity, clarity, and precision in discussion of the U.S. economy. Descriptors of the economy were considered either primary or secondary. Primary descriptors were the major terms used to identify the U.S. economy and were used explicitly in the text. Secondary…

This paper discusses the neoclassical and the Marxist traditions in economics and the current treatment of capitalist development in history textbooks. Beginning with an overview of the classical economists, Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, and David Ricardo, the two traditions in economics are then discussed in terms of: (1) scope and focus of…

The question of the relationship between capitalism and democracy is not new; scholars have produced a rich literature about it that includes virtually every considerable point of view. Yet the question is of more than historical interest; with the recent dramatic political and economic upheavals in Eastern Europe and the former USSR, it becomes…