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Illiberal reformers: Economics as hate

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  • Braham Dabscheck

Abstract

This review article discusses Leonard’s (2016) study of the ideas of an elite group of Progressive economists who flourished in the United States of America between 1885 and the late 1920s. Advising governments through think tanks and regulatory commissions, they advocated labour market policies that combined a racialized approach to immigration, eugenics, Taylorist labour market efficiency and a living wage. Their interest in women’s employment conditions was based on a Darwinian concern to protect mothers of the ‘white’ race. Parallels are drawn with Australia, where, from the turn of the 20th century, industrial tribunals established a male minimum wage designed to support the maternal role, based on similar racial preoccupations and a view that women’s ‘inefficiency’ as workers would protect men from low-wage competitors. United States Progressives, in rejecting laissez-faire economics, espoused instead a role for the state based on a holistic Darwinian sociology of racial contest: an economics of hate. It was not till the 1930s that Keynesianism emerged as an alternative macroeconomic project.

Suggested Citation

  • Braham Dabscheck, 2017. "Illiberal reformers: Economics as hate," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 28(2), pages 332-339, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:28:y:2017:i:2:p:332-339
    DOI: 10.1177/1035304617706257
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. W. Jethro Brown., 1927. "Economic Welfare And Racial Vitality," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 3(1), pages 15-34, May.
    2. Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 1911. "The Principles of Scientific Management," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number taylor1911.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Efficiency; eugenics; family wage; macroeconomics progressivism; racialism; Social Darwinism; Taylorism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B10 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - General
    • B22 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Macroeconomics

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