Towards a unified economic theory

The attempts to create a unified economic theory which is designed to integrate, at a general level, the concepts of neoclassical, institutional, evolutionary, systemic and a number of other theories that describe the functioning of economy or its fragments from various points of view have been analyzed in this paper. The idea is based on a concept of economic space as a combination of ontological, ideological, epistemological and praxeological spheres. The possibilities and prerequisites for creating a unified economic theory have been explored. Outline (preliminary) requirements for the thesaurus, subject area and a standard unit of analysis in a unified economic theory have been defined. The prospects for incorporating a new class of economic systems — the so-called quartet systems, which combine economic ontological, ideological, epistemological, and praxeological components, into the core of a unified economic theory have been demonstrated. The examples of situational analyses demonstrating the potential of the emerging unified economic theory as an apparatus for formulating and studying new socioeconomic problems have been provided. The most important tasks have been listed, and their solution would facilitate the progress towards creating a unified economic theory.