Comparative Economics in a Transforming World Economy, third edition

Abstract

This second edition of an innovative undergraduate text offers an approach to understanding different economic systems that reflects both recent transformations in the world and recent changes in the field of Comparative Economic Systems. The traditional way of teaching comparative economics, with its reliance on relatively simple dichotomies (private vs. state, planning vs. market) does not take into consideration the many variants and mixtures of economic systems that exist in the real world. The Rossers' introduction in the first edition of the concept of the traditional economy—the effort by a developing country to embed a modern economic system into a traditional culture, usually religious—presented a new way to look at developing economies. Their innovative examination of Iran and its effort to develop a revolutionary Islamic economy as an alternative to market capitalism illustrates the use of this new tool in comparative economics.