TOWARD A POST-KEYNESIAN POLITICAL ECONOMY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: GENERAL REFLECTIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS ON AN ERA RIPE FOR CHANGE

摘要

From the 1970s onward, “progressive” economic policy in the advanced capitalist societies has been steadily losing ground to neoconservative economic actions and outlooks. By “progressive economics,” I mean those policies aimed at establishing a regulated and mildly egalitarian form of capitalism through the use of government power. The ultimate aim of progressive economics is to raise the standard of living for average workers. Progressive economics should not be conflated with socialism. Progressive economics may be seen as representing an offshoot of the socialist tradition, but only under certain sociopolitical settings, as in the case, perhaps, of the Nordic countries. By “neoconservative economics,” I mean those policies that promote deregulation of the economy and seek to shift the orientation of the state as far away as possible from redistribution and a socially-based agenda, and toward strengthening the interests of finance capital and the rich. We do not regard neoconservative economics as a natural offshoot of classical economics, but rather as a distinct 20th-century movement guided by antistatist views and an explicitly antilabor outlook. 1 This is the version of neoliberalism developed by Milton Friedman and the so-called.