Abstract

This article deals solely with the analysis of economic-political cycles during the past decade. The reader will find here a limited attempt to point out the present status of the arena while it is used as an analytical tool.

This article offers a theoretical examination of the concept economic-political cyclicality and discusses the development of patterns of thinking related to it. The article presents the main principles of the idea, explains the basic assumptions, which the various approaches to it have in common, and points out the differences of opinion among the leading theorists. The analysis shows that there are numerous limitations of the theoretical tools and that great caution should be used in regard to conclusions arrived at on the basis of analyses that use these instruments. In this area, as in other areas of study that bring together economics and politics, a great deal still needs to be done. We argue that whereas those who deal with business cycles the attempt are always the same. Simply stated, they deal with specific events in which decisions are made for the purpose of achieving the maximum political-social gain in (conscious) exchange for conceding optimum macro-economic gain.

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