
Ryan Walter
- Email:
- r.walter1@uq.edu.au
- Phone:
- +61 7 336 58210
- Mobile:
- 0449915833
Overview
Background
Supervised by the late Barry Hindess, I wrote my PhD on the history of economic thought in Britain, focusing on how the rise of political economy changed political discourse. My current research continues this inquiry but in relaton to the emergence of the political economist as a distinctive intellectual persona, focusing on Adam Smith, Thomas Robert Malthus, and David Ricardo. A major result has been to clarify the nature of the opposition that greeted the first economists. In short, 'theorising' had not been established as a prestigious activity; the presumption of intellectuals to reform their societies on the basis of 'theory' was perceived as an instance of philosophical enthusiasm, an intellectual pathology thought to underlie the French Revolution. Political economists responded to this opposition in divergent ways, producing fractiousness within their own ranks.
The long-range hypothesis to test in future work is that these teething issues were never resolved, with the result that the office of the economist in relation to government has never been stabilised by the development of a set of professional ethics and disciplines internal to economics of the type that lawyers and doctors innovated. If correct, this suggests that, while some economists have been domesticated by the imposition of bureaucratic offices, as for those working in central banks and treasury departments, most economists continue to roam wild, leaving our political institutions as exposed to their enthusiasm/truth as they were 200 years ago. The key statement of the initial stage of this research is Before Method and Models (Oxford, 2021). A series of subsidiary findings are published in Modern Intellectual History, Journal of the History of Ideas, Historical Journal, and Intellectual History Review.
Availability
- Associate Professor Ryan Walter is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Commerce, Murdoch University
- Bachelor (Honours) of Economics, Murdoch University
- Doctor of Philosophy, Australian National University
Research interests
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History of economic thought
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History of political thought
Works
Search Professor Ryan Walter’s works on UQ eSpace
Featured
2021
Book
Before method and models: the political economy of Malthus and Ricardo
Walter, Ryan (2021). Before method and models: the political economy of Malthus and Ricardo. New York, NY United States: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780197603055.001.0001
Featured
2020
Journal Article
Malthus's sacred history: outflanking civil history in the late Enlightenment
Walter, Ryan (2020). Malthus's sacred history: outflanking civil history in the late Enlightenment. Rethinking History, 24 (3-4), 481-502. doi: 10.1080/13642529.2020.1822662
Featured
2020
Journal Article
Conservative politics and laissez-faire economics?: The Burke-Smith problem revisited
Walter, Ryan (2020). Conservative politics and laissez-faire economics?: The Burke-Smith problem revisited. Critical Historical Studies, 7 (2), 271-295. doi: 10.1086/710696
Featured
2020
Journal Article
Office, political theory, and the political theorist
Kearns, David and Walter, Ryan (2020). Office, political theory, and the political theorist. The Historical Journal, 63 (2), 317-337. doi: 10.1017/s0018246x19000220
Featured
2019
Journal Article
Defending political theory after Burke: Stewart's intellectual disciplines and the demotion of practice
Walter, Ryan (2019). Defending political theory after Burke: Stewart's intellectual disciplines and the demotion of practice. Journal of the History of Ideas, 80 (3), 387-408. doi: 10.1353/jhi.2019.0028
Featured
2019
Journal Article
The Bullion Controversy and the history of political thought: experience, innovation and theory
Walter, Ryan (2019). The Bullion Controversy and the history of political thought: experience, innovation and theory. Intellectual History Review, 29 (3), 467-488. doi: 10.1080/17496977.2018.1526452
Featured
2018
Journal Article
The enthusiasm of David Ricardo
Walter, Ryan (2018). The enthusiasm of David Ricardo. Modern Intellectual History, 15 (2), 1-29. doi: 10.1017/S1479244316000044
Featured
2017
Journal Article
Rhetoric or deliberation? The case for rhetorical political analysis
Walter, Ryan (2017). Rhetoric or deliberation? The case for rhetorical political analysis. Political Studies, 65 (2), 300-315. doi: 10.1177/0032321716651898
Featured
2016
Journal Article
Adam Smith’s free trade casuistry
Walter, Ryan (2016). Adam Smith’s free trade casuistry. Global Intellectual History, 1 (1), 61-82. doi: 10.1080/23801883.2016.1228180
Featured
2016
Journal Article
From theory to history: Keith Tribe’s Land, labour and economic discourse and The economy of the word
Walter, Ryan (2016). From theory to history: Keith Tribe’s Land, labour and economic discourse and The economy of the word. Economy and Society, 45 (3-4), 537-546. doi: 10.1080/03085147.2016.1240517
Featured
2015
Journal Article
Slingsby Bethel's Analysis of State Interests
Walter, Ryan (2015). Slingsby Bethel's Analysis of State Interests. History of European Ideas, 41 (4), 489-506. doi: 10.1080/01916599.2014.926659
Featured
2011
Book
A critical history of the economy: on the birth of the national and international economies
Walter, Ryan (2011). A critical history of the economy: on the birth of the national and international economies. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203806111
2024
Book Chapter
From counsellor to theorist, or the real history of realism: interest in England c. 1640-80
Walter, Ryan (2024). From counsellor to theorist, or the real history of realism: interest in England c. 1640-80. Rise of the international: international relations meets history. (pp. 113-130) edited by Richard Devetak and Tim Dunne. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780192871640.003.0006
2023
Journal Article
Linguagem, contexto e história do pensamento econômico: antes da economia ter sua própria língua
Walter, Ryan (2023). Linguagem, contexto e história do pensamento econômico: antes da economia ter sua própria língua. História Econômica e História de Empresas, 26 (2), 523-540. doi: 10.29182/hehe.v26i2.931
2023
Journal Article
Review of recovering classical liberal political economy: natural rights and the harmony of interests
Walter, Ryan (2023). Review of recovering classical liberal political economy: natural rights and the harmony of interests. History of European Ideas, 49 (4), 778-780. doi: 10.1080/01916599.2023.2196310
2022
Other Outputs
University-made economics
Walter, Ryan (2022, 12 01). University-made economics Australian Book Review
2022
Book Chapter
Blood for Ghost Malthus: Assessing Angelo Messedaglia's Criticisms of Robert Malthus's Principle of Population
Walter, Ryan (2022). Blood for Ghost Malthus: Assessing Angelo Messedaglia's Criticisms of Robert Malthus's Principle of Population. La Scienza Come Dovere Civile: Due Scritti di Angelo Messedaglia. (pp. 1-16) edited by Sergio Noto. Firenze, Italy: Olschki.
2020
Book Chapter
Malthus’s principle of population in Britain: restatement and antiquation
Walter, Ryan (2020). Malthus’s principle of population in Britain: restatement and antiquation. Malthus across nations: the reception of Thomas Robert Malthus in Europe, America and Japan. (pp. 18-52) edited by Gilbert Faccarello, Masashi Izumo and Hiromi Morishita. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing. doi: 10.4337/9781788977579.00006
2018
Journal Article
In search of the two-handed economist: ideology, methodology and marketing in economics
Walter, Ryan (2018). In search of the two-handed economist: ideology, methodology and marketing in economics. Economic and Labour Relations Review, 29 (3), 367-371. doi: 10.1177/1035304618781655
2016
Journal Article
The critical theorist's labour: empirical or philosophical historiography for international relations?
Devetak, Richard and Walter, Ryan (2016). The critical theorist's labour: empirical or philosophical historiography for international relations?. Globalizations, 13 (5), 1-12. doi: 10.1080/14747731.2015.1133527
Funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Associate Professor Ryan Walter is:
- Available for supervision
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Available projects
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The History of Political Theory
I am currently investigating the history of political theory, building on Ian Hunter's "History of Theory" work. Early results have been published in Modern Intellectual History (2018). The leading finding so far is that the first "political theorists" were greeted with hostility because their presumption to remodel their societies on the basis of abstract reason was construed in relation to "enthusiasm" - a pathology affecting the mind by which it becomes enchanted with its own creations, above all, intellectual systems and dazzling ideas. These results suggest that a crucial line for further research to pursue is the means by which "theorists" achieved the status and prestige that they enjoy today.
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The History of Liberalism
My recent work loosely tracks the history of "liberalism", but with extreme scepticism towards the usefulness of that category. In short, the aim is to reject the lazy assertion that ideas make the world and instead track those texts and arts of reasoning that achieved institutional and political traction. This, in turn, requires focusing on texts and their reception histories, alongside investigating the personnel who staffed the liberal-democratic state. While my chief interest is in the role of political economists in shaping parliamentary deliberation and reform in nineteenth-century Britain - see the Bullion Controversy, Poor Laws, and Corn Laws - the bigger vision will need to take in party politicians, lawyers, and bureaucrats. Early results have been published in Intellectual History Review (2018).
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Conceptualising and Modelling Tax Competition: An Interdisciplinary Study of Policy and Strategy
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Priscilla Man, Associate Professor Jeffrey Kline
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Doctor Philosophy
Conceptualising and Modelling Tax Competition: An Interdisciplinary Study of Policy and Strategy
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Priscilla Man, Associate Professor Jeffrey Kline
-
Doctor Philosophy
Conceptualising and Modelling Tax Competition: An Interdisciplinary Study of Policy and Strategy
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Priscilla Man, Associate Professor Jeffrey Kline
-
Doctor Philosophy
A Game Theoretic Analysis of the OECD's Use of Competition in the International Tax Domain
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Jeffrey Kline
Completed supervision
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2024
Doctor Philosophy
Keynes, Keyserling, and the Intellectual Origins of the Employment Act 1946
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Frank Mols
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Small is Beautiful: Knowledge Sharing Dynamics in Indonesia's Puskesmas Model of Primary Health Care
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Sam Hollingworth, Dr Alastair Stark
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2024
Doctor Philosophy
The Politics of Central Bank Approaches to Climate Change in East Asia and the West
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Shahar Hameiri
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2022
Doctor Philosophy
Why Debt Is More Than Just a Number: The Market Framing of Rising Government Debt in Selected EMU Countries Between 1989 and 2018
Associate Advisor
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Disaggregating `the Enlightenment': An International Intellectual History of the English Enlightenment
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Richard Devetak
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2018
Doctor Philosophy
Post-Crisis Recovery and Policy Implementation: Public Asset Restoration in Queensland Local Government.
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Alastair Stark
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2017
Doctor Philosophy
Jeremy Bentham's Ethics of Intervention: the Utilitarian 'Moral Casuistry' of a Cosmopolitan Internationalist
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Richard Devetak
Media
Enquiries
Contact Associate Professor Ryan Walter directly for media enquiries about:
- Australian political rhetoric
- democracy
- liberal democracy
- liberalism
- Political rhetoric
- Political speech
- sovereignty
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