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3 - AM I A LIBERAL? (1925)

from IV - POLITICS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2012

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Summary

‘Am I a Liberal?’ was first given as an address to the Liberal Summer School which met at Cambridge in August 1925. It was then published as two articles in the Nation and Athenaeum, 8 and 15 August 1925.

The published version varies only slightly from the typescript of the original speech, with the exception of one interesting omission in which Keynes elaborates on the theme of his real objection to the Labour Party. The paragraphs in question occur after the sentence ending…the class war will find me on the side of the educated bourgeoisie'. In his speech to the Liberal Summer School Keynes continued:

But this is not the fundamental difficulty. I am ready to sacrifice my local patriotisms to an important general purpose. What is the real repulsion which keeps me away from Labour?

I cannot explain it without beginning to approach my fundamental position. I believe that in the future, more than ever, questions about the economic framework of society will be far and away the most important of political issues. I believe that the right solution will involve intellectual and scientific elements which must be above the heads of the vast mass of more or less illiterate voters. Now, in a democracy, every party alike has to depend on this mass of ill-understanding voters, and no party will attain power unless it can win the confidence of these voters by persuading them in a general way either that it intends to promote their interests or that it intends to gratify their passions.

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Publisher: Royal Economic Society
Print publication year: 1978

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