The political economy of state regulation
The case of the British Factory Acts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23198331 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Katherine A Moos (0000-0002-3054-1655, University of Massachusetts Amherst, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 61-84 |
| Publication date | 2021-01-13 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cambridge Journal of Economics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0309-166X • E-ISSN: 1464-3545 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/cje/beaa034 |
| OpenAlex | W2757231722 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 57 |
This paper examines the British Factory Acts (enacted 1833–78) to articulate a political economic theory of policy formation. It argues that the British Factory Acts stabilised conditions for both capital accumulation and social reproduction, while perpetuating patriarchal–capitalist relations. Through these Acts, the state intervened in industrial relations to address social coordination problems and overexploitation caused by the incentive structure of firms and households. Overexploitation posed three threats to social reproduction: the deterioration of the health of the working class, the destabilisation of gender norms and patriarchal structures and political mobilisation of the working and middle classes. By conceptualising protective policy as the solution to social coordination problems in the industrial capitalist labour market, this paper builds upon Polanyian insights into the ‘double movement’, with an explicit Marxian theory of exploitation, the classical theory of competition and insights from feminist theories of social reproduction, unwaged labour and the patriarchal–capitalist system.
Capitalism · Capitalist state · Economic system · Economics · Factory (object-oriented programming) · Market economy · Monopolization · Neoclassical economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Reproduction · Social capital · Social reproduction · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science) · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Political Economy and Marxism · Social Policy and Reform Studies
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| Citations per year | 1.6 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |