Heterodox Economic Theory: Current Status and Ways of Further Development

The article deals with the systematization of the key differences between orthodox and heterodox economics. An analysis based on the data of the author's 2016 sociological survey of the Russian community of academic economists reveals that the majority of its members are heterodox economists. Furthermore, this analysis finds that Russian and foreign non-orthodox economists have one thing in common: very vague knowledge of current trends within modern mainstream economics. The author has shown that further development of heterodox economics will face serious challenges. On the one hand, many heterodox economists, instead of cooperating with the increasingly pluralistic mainstream, are involved in its severe criticism. On the other hand, certain narrow-minded mainstream economists try to hinder growth in disciplinary autonomy of heterodox economics. Taken together, these tendencies are impeding the improvement of analytical methods of heterodox economics and leading to efforts being squandered on the struggle with the mainstream, thereby preventing development of heterodox concepts. From the author's point of view, there can be identified two key trajectories of the future heterodox economics growth. The first one implies the integration of heterodox economic thought into the mainstream through its mathematization. The second scenario assumes economic heterodoxy moving from the subject field of economics into the sphere of other social sciences. The author believes that, regardless of the potential strategy, heterodox economists should focus their scientific work not on the caricaturization of the mainstream, which is becoming more and more open to unconventional ideas, but on the revision and creation of new non-orthodox economic concepts.