Classical Political Economy Concepts of Value and Rent against Mainstream Economic Theory

For a long time it was believed that the marginalist revolution rejected classical political economy and created modern economic science. In fact, various problems that had been studied by classical political economy ware completely neglected and unexplored by mainstream economic theory since the marginalist revolution. The purpose of the article is to present facts that classical political economy and mainstream theory after the marginalist revolution explore quite different problems in economic science. Two of the turning point concepts in economic theory are analyzed, that of value and land rent, which are decisive for the foundation of classical political economy. The concept of land rent as part of the distribution is almost absent from mainstream theory, and that of value is taken as an axiom. In Bulgaria, there are studies that present the fundamental differences in the two theories, but without examining the specific concepts of value and rent, which are key to the change in economic theory. The article shows why classical political economy remains relevant by better analyzing contemporary reality. Comparative and historical analysis was used for the needs of the research.