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Keynes, capitalism and public purpose

Author

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  • Suzanne J Konzelmann
  • Victoria Chic
  • Marc Fovargue-Davies

Abstract

When the same person is described as a 'Capitalist Revolutionary' and a ‘Bourgeois Marxist’, you know that there is a tug of war going on between opposing ideologies to claim the ideas of that person: in this case, John Maynard Keynes. James Crotty, in his recent book, Keynes against Capitalism, joins the game. Crotty takes issue with the conventional interpretation: that Keynes was trying to save capitalism. Instead, he argues that from the mid-1920s until his death in 1946, Keynes consistently argued for replacing capitalism with ‘liberal socialism’. Crotty also maintains that The General Theory was designed to provide the theoretical foundation in support of his case against capitalism, in favour of liberal socialism. We contend that these labels, however clear they might have been to Keynes, are now laden with all sorts of interpretive baggage, and that Keynes’s thinking was rather too subtle and complex to be comfortably described by them. To make this case, we examine the social purpose that Keynes’s theoretical and policy work was designed to achieve and the means by which he thought it could best be achieved, as his thinking developed in the context of the rapidly changing times through which he lived.

Suggested Citation

  • Suzanne J Konzelmann & Victoria Chic & Marc Fovargue-Davies, 2021. "Keynes, capitalism and public purpose," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 45(3), pages 591-612.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:45:y:2021:i:3:p:591-612.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cje/beab002
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    Cited by:

    1. Eckhard Hein & Hagen M. Krämer, 2024. "Kalecki’s and Keynes’s Perspectives on Achieving and Sustaining Full Employment in a Global Economy," Working Papers PKWP2404, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    2. Geoff Tily, 2023. "Victoria Chick's Keynes in Time," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(5), pages 1296-1330, September.
    3. Matías Vernengo, 2023. "Was Keynes a Liberal or a Socialist?," FMM Working Paper 94-2023, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    4. Suzanne J. Konzelmann & Marc Fovargue-Davies, 2021. "A "United States of Europe" – An Idea Whose Time Has Come (or Gone)? The Insecurity Cycle in Europe and America," Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Torino (Italy), vol. 55(2), pages 243-282, December.

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