Poverty amidst plenty: world political economy and distributive justice

The aim of the present volume is to enable students to respond clearly and comprehensively to this question and the array of issues it evokes.
But correct answers can be derived only if we first ask correct questions. This is the great secret behind all theory. Theories do not provide correct answers so much as they permit us to inquire precisely and systematically into the complex realities of nature and of human or social experience. The challenge of poverty amidst plenty is to peer behind mere description by asking piercing analytical questions that point toward broad explanation. Thus, our first step is to define not the answers but the questions that nurture the most acute forms of analysis and theoretical explanation.

Questions of theoretical significance must, finally, be posed in terms of a conceptual language or vocabulary, for only by this means can we construct a universe of discourse among persons concerned about the same subjects or issues. The theoretical perspectives we are about to discover represent segments of such a universe of discourse-one which links theoretical or explanatory analysis with normative theory and analysis. The name we give to this enterprise is political economy.