The Role of Government in the History of Economic Thought

by Medema, Steven G.; Boettke, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780822366522
• ISBN10: 0822366525
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-01-30
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

The Role of Government in the History of Economic Thoughtexamines a controversial area of economic analysis: the appropriate role of government within the economic system. If the first two-thirds of the twentieth century were dominated by the active involvement of economists in government policymaking, blurring the lines between the spheres of economics and politics, then the last several decades have witnessed something of a reversion to the classical economics of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill. This volume offers a comprehensive and integrated history of the evolution of the relationship between governments and economies, examining the British classical tradition, the American progressive movement, and corporatist ideology.

Table of Contents

Setting the Table	1	(9)
STEVEN G. MEDEMA
The Limits of Economic Expertise: Prophets, Engineers, and the State in the History of Development Economics	10	(33)
PETER BOETTKE AND STEVEN HORWITZ
Part 1. New Perspectives on the British Classical Tradition
Benevolence, Sympathy, and Hume's Model of Government: How Different Is New Political Economy from Classical Political Economy?	43	(28)
ALAIN MARCIANO
Are Two Knaves Better Than One? Hume, Buchanan, and Musgrave on Economics and Government	71	(20)
ANDREW FARRANT AND MARIA PIA PAGANELLI
Unintended Order and Intervention: Adam Smith's Theory of the Role of the State	91	(29)
JEFFREY T. YOUNG
The Theory of Economic Policy in British Classical Political Economy: A Sympathetic Reading	120	(25)
DAVID M. LEVY AND SANDRA PEART
Part 2. Aspects of the American Experience
How TRIPs Got Legs: Copyright, Trade Policy, and the Role of Government in Nineteenth-Century American Economic Thought	145	(30)
STEPHEN MEARDON
Bringing in the State? The Life and Times of Laissez-Faire in the Nineteenth-Century United States	175	(25)
BRADLEY W. BATEMAN
Mistaking Eugenics for Social Darwinism: Why Eugenics Is Missing from the History of American Economics	200	(34)
THOMAS C. LEONARD
Walton H. Hamilton and the Public Control of Business	234	(43)
MALCOLM RUTHERFORD
Part 3. Doctrine Meets Policy
From Muddling Through to the Economics of Control: Views of Applied Policy from J. N. Keynes to Abba Lerner	277	(15)
DAVID COLANDER
Economists, Government, and Economic Policymaking in Israel: From "Crawling Peg" to "Cold Turkey"	292	(22)
YAKIR PLESSNER AND WARREN YOUNG
From Continental Public Finance to Public Choice: Mapping Continuity	314	(19)
JÜRGEN G. BACKHAUS AND RICHARD E. WAGNER
Corporatism and the Economic Role of Government	333	(22)
ANTÓNIO ALMODOVAR AND JOSÉ LUIS CARDOSO
The Rise of Free Market Economics: Economists and the Role of the State since 1970	355	(38)
ROGER E. BACKHOUSE
The Role of Government in the History of Political Economy: The 2004 HOPE Conference Interpreted and Critiqued by the General Discussant	393	(32)
WARREN J. SAMUELS
Contributors	425	(4)
Index	429