Keynesianism, social conflict, and political economy / Massimo De Angelis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

De Angelis, M. (Massimo)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Keynesian economics--History.

Keynesian economics.

Social conflict--United States--History--20th century.

Social conflict.

Economics--United States--History--20th century.

Economics.

History.

United States.

Physical Description:

x, 228 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2000.

Summary:

This controversial new book show that there is more to economics than dry models and esoteric equations. By investigating the rise and fall of post-war Keynesianism and focusing on the experience of the United States, the author adopts an interdisciplinary approach to show that economics is rooted in the flesh and blood history of social conflict. This timely study concludes with a discussion of the viability of Keynesianism today.

Contents:

1 Introduction: The Social Meaning of Economics 1

1.1 Conventional wisdom 1

1.2 The social meaning of Keynesianism 3

1.3 The structure of the book 8

2 The Making of the Keynesianism of Keynes 11

2.1 Introduction: economic liberalism before the Keynesian revolution 11

2.2 Social conflict and Keynes' early political intuition 14

3 Keynes' Scientific System 23

3.1 Aggregates and time: the co-ordinates of a new capitalist strategy 23

3.2 Time, crisis, and expectations 29

4 The Mass Worker and Ford's Strategy 37

4.2 The attack on working-class power through the elimination of the craft worker 40

4.3 Patterns of insubordination of the mass worker 41

4.4 Ford's five-dollar day and the strategy for the subsumption of the mass worker 44

4.5 Workers' resistance and the decay of the five-dollar day 48

5 War, Class War, and the Making of the Social Microfoundations of Keynesianism 50

5.2 Social turmoil during the Great Depression 50

5.3 The "crisis of productivity" during the war years 53

5.4 Union bureaucratization and war planning 56

6 War Planning and the Rise of the Keynesian Orthodoxy 61

6.2 The "danger" lying ahead: the strategic role of economics in class war planning 67

7 The Institutional Features of Post-war Keynesianism 75

7.1 The theoretical consensus and strategic role of economics in post-war economic planning 75

7.2 A struggle-pushed consensus 82

7.3 The social basis of Keynesianism and its limits: the social "microfoundation" of macroeconomic policies 83

7.4 A general illustration of the social "microfoundation" of macroeconomics 84

7.5 Recognition and co-optation of working-class autonomy: the Taft-Hartley Act 86

7.6 The union contract 88

7.7 The link between work and revenue among unwaged workers 92

8 The Theoretical Features of Post-war Keynesianism 97

8.2 The analytical framework of the Neo-classical Synthesis: the IS-LM model 98

8.3 Aggregation, wage rigidity, and working-class power 102

8.4 Wage rigidity, productivity deals, and state planning 104

8.5 Time and expectations: endogenizing "animal spirits" 106

8.6 Adaptive expectations, productivity deals, and state planning 107

9 Economic Modeling and Social Conflict: 1

The Fiscal Multiplier 112

9.1 Some methodological remarks 112

9.2 The dissection of the simple income determination model 117

9.3 The Keynesian multiplier and Marxian categories: rate of surplus value and rate of profit 122

9.4 Implicit assumptions and implications of the dissected income determination model: wages and productivity 123

9.5 Implicit assumptions and implications of the dissected income determination model: extention of working time 125

9.6 The social meaning of the Keynesian strategy of employment creation 126

9.7 The social multiplier with public expenditures in a closed economy 127

9.8 The social multiplier in the open economy 129

10 Economic Modeling and Social Conflict: 2

Inflation and the Phillips Curve 135

10.2 The Phillips curve and capital's strategies 137

10.3 From cracks to wreckage: class struggle, the crisis of Keynesianism, and the collapse of the Phillips curve 142

11 Conclusion: Looking Ahead 148

11.1 The general features of this book 148

11.2 The new crisis and the process of globalization: general characteristics 150

11.3 Globalization and new social movements 152

11.4 The current crisis and neoliberal opportunism 155

11.5 The current crisis and the Keynesian alternative to neoliberal strategies 157

11.6 What then? 173.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-217) and index.

ISBN:

0312231466

OCLC:

42874983