Buddhism and non-violent economics

What is it about?

The paper explores the Buddhist contribution to establish a non-violent political economy. It introduces the development of the conceptions of Buddhist economics from the perspective of non-violence. It reviews the works of the four most influential authors from the field of Buddhist economics that gave centrality to the conception of non-violence in economy: the observations on non-violent economy by Gandhi; the conception of ‘small is beautiful’ by Schumacher; the main economic ideas of Payutto, a Thai Buddhist monk; and the conceptions of Buddhist economic strategy by Zsolnai. The paper introduces the main Buddhist principles and the core values that make Buddhism a unique approach to the subject of economics.

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Why is it important?

The paper shows that the philosophy and the practice of Buddhism can contribute to the realization of the principles of non-violence in economics.

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