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Making Radical Political Economics and Post Keynesian Economics, 1960-1980 D isse n t In E c o n o m ic s : Making Radical Political Economics and Post Keynesian Economics, 1960-1980 Tiago Jorge Fernandes Mata London School of Economics and Political Science Candidate, Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Economics 2005 UMI Number: U615640 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615640 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 h 951Z. Library British Litorwy ot Political ancl Economic to e n c e A b s t r a c t The history of dissent in economics has thus far been subject to scant interest. The existing scholarship, authored by dissenters probing their own past, has failed to address the crucial questions of how dissent emerged and rooted itself. This study is about two dissenting communities, Radical Political Economics and Post Keynesian Economics. I review the circumstances that led to their emergence in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I draw from the histories of religious and scientific dissent to explore the making of the dissenters’ challenge to the economics orthodoxy. Notably, I use the concept of boundary work to analyse the debates between dissenters and mainstream. The history of Radical Political Economics begins with the founding in 1968 of the Union for Radical Political Economics. Onto this Union converged a generation of young radicalised academics that sought to unite their political interests and their scholarly pursuits. After a period devoted to the design of a “paradigm of conflict,” radicals turned to outreach work with popular movements. The new commitment brought divisive political identities into their Union that barred any agreement on a programme to transform economics. Post Keynesian Economics emerged in the aftermath of debates on capital theory between Cambridge left Keynesians and neoclassical economists. With the conviction that the debates signalled the emergence of a new theory in economics, American dissenters decided to ally with the Cambridge critics. The content of the alliance was redefined many times in the 1970s by a succession of spokespersons for the group. Of this period resulted a weakly bound community joined by a sense of shared ancestry. The two case studies reveal the diverse resources and allies that dissenters mustered for their battle with the economics orthodoxy. They show how the dissenters’ challenge shaped the boundaries of their communities and the content of their identity. 1 A cknowledgments I owe my gratitude to two communities that taught me the craft of historical study and scholarly debate. The Department of Economic History at LSE was an ideal environment to rehearse the questions and answers of this thesis. My supervisor, Mary Morgan, with expert attention to detail showed me what history is and moved me to learn. Cristel de Rouvray, my friend and colleague, with her curiosity, creativity and energy was unfailing in her understanding and support. Linda Sampson was my guide to the bureaucracies of academia and a source of generous encouragement. The History of Economics Society was a second intellectual home. My participation in its annual conference was source of encouragement, insight and pleasure. I would like to extend a special thanks to Roger E. Backhouse and John B. Davis for the penetrating comments with which they greeted my work. This history is about American economics of three decades past and an ocean of distance (and time) can be a difficult obstacle to surmount. Fortunately, I had the kind support of Frederic S. Lee, with whom I shared archival material, and Geoffrey C. Harcourt, who opened his personal correspondence to my research. I also thank Ruth Indeck, Laurie Nisonoff and Donald Katzner for sharing their recollections and personal files. The librarians and archivists at the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library of Duke University, were helpful and patient beyond the call of duty. It was thanks to all of them that I learnt the unlikely excitement of prospecting an archive. If it were not for my friends and family, their love and confidence in my efforts, this thesis would not have been concluded. I thank them with my love. London, 23rd September 2005 This research was funded by a doctoral scholarship from the Fundagao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia - Programa Operacional Ciencia e Inovagao 2010 (POCI 2010); Programa Operacional Sociedade do Conhecimento (POS - C) do III Quadro Comunitario de Apoio (2000-2006); Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior. I have also benefited from two small grants for archival and interview research from the Central London Research Fund and The Economists’ Papers Project, Duke University. 2 Table of Contents I Literatures on Dissent 9 1 Dissent in science 10 1.1 Introduction: the troubling 1970s................................................................... 10 1.2 History of dissent in economics...................................................................... 12 1.3 History of religious dissent ............................................................................ 14 1.4 History and sociology of dissent in science................................................... 17 1.4.1 The uses of d issent................................................................................ 17 1.4.2 History of science as political history ............................................. 21 1.4.3 Boundary work and the topography of science.............................. 27 1.5 The making of dissent in economics ............................................................. 34 II Radical Political Economics 39 2 Introduction to Radical Political Economics 40 2.1 Participant histories of Radical Political Economics ................................ 40 2.2 The “left academic” ......................................................................................... 41 2.3 Externalizing the history of Radical Political Economics.......................... 49 3 A political divide 51 3.1 Students, radicals and the economics profession.......................................... 51 3.2 A three-period history of student radicalism................................................ 52 3.2.1 Parting ways with liberalism (1961-1965) ....................................... 52 3.2.2 Vietnam War and revolution (1965-1970)....................................... 54 3.2.3 Demise of campus activism (1971-1974) .......................................... 60 3.3 The challenge of Radical Political Economics............................................. 62 3.3.1 Origins of the Union for Radical Political Economics (1965-1968) 63 3.3.2 Defining Radical Political Economics (1969-1971) 69 3.3.3 Responses to the radical ch allen g.................................................... e 80 3 3.4 The resolution of the radical challenge........................................................ 91 3.4.1 Rejecting the ra d ic a ls........................................................................ 92 3.4.2 Radical departments ........................................................................ 99 3.5 The academic politics of radical econom ists..................................................105 4 Economics with the people 107 4.1 The Union of Radical Political Economics in the 1970s...............................107 4.2 Outreach over academia (1972-75) .............................................................. 109 4.2.1 Taking over the AEA or Movement Coordinating............................109 4.2.2 Political Education and Action C oordinator.....................................116 4.2.3 Marxism in the Review of Radical Political Economics ...... 122 4.3 Conflicting interests and identities in URPE (1971-1978)......................... 126 4.3.1 Women’s Liberation in U R P E.............................................................. 127 4.3.2 Fighting over the current events newsletter -Dollars & Sense . 135 4.3.3 “Whither URPE?” Yellow Springs, August 1975 ......................... 141 4.3.4 URPE as an “umbrella organization” ...............................................147 4.4 Divisive activ ism .................................................................................................151 5 Conclusion to Radical Political Economics 153 5.1 URPE and Radical Political Economics ........................................................153 5.2 Boundary work and radical identity.............................................................. 158 III P ost K eynesian E conomics 167 6 Introduction to Post Keynesian Economics 168 6.1 Participant histories of Post Keynesian Economics..................................... 168 6.2 The Keynesian generations ..............................................................................170 6.3 Punished by orthodoxy .................................................................................... 177 6.4 Externalising the history of Post Keynesian Economics............................ 180 7 Atlantic alliance 182 7.1 Capital theory, Cambridge economics and survey-history........................
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