The market
One of the central conflicts in political economy is, of course, the role and functioning of the market economy in society. It is here where the broad range of paradigmatic assumptions collides, and on particular issues, individuals and groups with widely differing views will find common intellectual and practical political cause. In the political world, the fulcrum is on the ownership of capital surplus and production.
In the context of political economy, capitalism takes on a very broad meaning: the focus of the state on the maintaining and creating of capital and the means of its utilization. Many paradigms use the word in a much narrower context to mean private ownership and the self-justifying results of market operation, and deny that any other use of the word is appropriate. However, the vast majority of governing and major opposition parties in the industrialized world see the maintaining of capital capability as an area for legitimate state interest, and therefore maintain that government intervention in the market to prevent its disintegration, and even to promote certain aspects of its advancement is a proper use of state power.
Socialism, viewed as a system of political economy, states that the forms of production (on which labour is dependent to sell to) should be maintained, or overseen, by political power, and generally state power, in order to give their benefits to the many rather than the few.
Communism sees the necessity of social control over all surplus generating activity. Communist parties exist in most industrialized nations, while communist revolutionary movements are more common in less industrialized ones. Within the paradigm of communism there are a host of particular theories. Not all Marxist theories are communist ...