The Currency of Politics

The Currency of Politics: The Political Theory of Money from Aristotle to Keynes is a 2022 book by political theorist Stefan Eich, published by Princeton University Press. In the book Eich documents an intellectual history of money and its relationship to democratic politics by investigating key monetary crises from ancient Greece to the contemporary era. The author analyzes the political theories of philosophers including Aristotle, John Locke, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes, arguing that money functions not merely as an economic instrument but as a significant institution of political governance. The book was awarded the 2023 Best First Book Prize by the Foundations of Political Theory section of the American Political Science Association. It has been translated into German, Italian, Turkish, and Chinese.

Overview

Eich examines how money has functioned not only as an economic instrument but also as a defining political institution throughout history. In his introduction, he sets out a framework for understanding currency's role in shaping governance and democratic self-rule, and suggested that debates over money's political significance have re-emerged in the aftermath of recent financial crises.

Building on this framework, Eich first engages Aristotle's classical understanding of coinage, showing how the philosopher saw currency as foundational to political communities (Chapter 1). He then traces the modern shift toward “depoliticizing” money through John Locke’s defense of state-backed metallic standards during the Great Recoinage of 1696 (Chapter 2). In contrast, Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s proposal for paper money underscores the idea of currency as a social contract and a tool for civic equality (Chapter 3).