Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter One The Reconstruction of an Alternative Economic Thought: Some Premises
- Chapter Two Reflections on Unity and Diversity, the Market and Economic Policy
- Chapter Three Ending Laissez-Faire Finance
- Chapter Four Democracy in Crisis: So What's New?
- Chapter Five The Democracy of Ideas: J. S. Mill, Liberalism and the Economic Debate
- Chapter Six Turgot and the Division of Labor
- Chapter Seven Agricultural Surplus and the Means of Production
- Chapter Eight The Role of Sraffa Prices in Post-Keynesian Pricing Theory
- Chapter Nine Classical Underconsumption Theories Reassessed
- Chapter Ten On the “Photograph” Interpretation of Piero Sraffa's Production Equations: A View from the Sraffa Archive
- Chapter Eleven On the Earliest Formulations of Sraffa's Equations
- Chapter Twelve Normal and Degenerate Solutions of the Walras-Morishima Model
- Chapter Thirteen Trading in the “Devil's Metal”: Keynes's Speculation and Investment in Tin (1921–46)
- Chapter Fourteen The Oil Question, the Prices of Production and a Metaphor
- Chapter Fifteen Europe and Italy: Expansionary Austerity and Expansionary Precariousness
- Chapter Sixteen Adam Smith and the Neophysiocrats: War of Ideas in Spain (1800–4)
- Bibliography
- List of Contributors
- Index
Chapter Five - The Democracy of Ideas: J. S. Mill, Liberalism and the Economic Debate
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter One The Reconstruction of an Alternative Economic Thought: Some Premises
- Chapter Two Reflections on Unity and Diversity, the Market and Economic Policy
- Chapter Three Ending Laissez-Faire Finance
- Chapter Four Democracy in Crisis: So What's New?
- Chapter Five The Democracy of Ideas: J. S. Mill, Liberalism and the Economic Debate
- Chapter Six Turgot and the Division of Labor
- Chapter Seven Agricultural Surplus and the Means of Production
- Chapter Eight The Role of Sraffa Prices in Post-Keynesian Pricing Theory
- Chapter Nine Classical Underconsumption Theories Reassessed
- Chapter Ten On the “Photograph” Interpretation of Piero Sraffa's Production Equations: A View from the Sraffa Archive
- Chapter Eleven On the Earliest Formulations of Sraffa's Equations
- Chapter Twelve Normal and Degenerate Solutions of the Walras-Morishima Model
- Chapter Thirteen Trading in the “Devil's Metal”: Keynes's Speculation and Investment in Tin (1921–46)
- Chapter Fourteen The Oil Question, the Prices of Production and a Metaphor
- Chapter Fifteen Europe and Italy: Expansionary Austerity and Expansionary Precariousness
- Chapter Sixteen Adam Smith and the Neophysiocrats: War of Ideas in Spain (1800–4)
- Bibliography
- List of Contributors
- Index
Summary
What I stated was, that the Conservative party was, by the law of its constitution, necessarily the stupidest party. Now, I do not retract this assertion, but I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative.
Introduction
The main subject of this chapter is an eminent economist, John Stuart Mill (JSM), whom we dare say, our former supervisor, colleague and dear friend Alessandro Roncaglia, perhaps too hastily, somewhat overlooked throughout his long and successful career as an economist and historian of economic thought.
In his magnum opus, The Wealth of Ideas, Roncaglia (2005a) approvingly recalls JSM's analysis of individual behavior, from which our present analysis departs, but almost neglects On Liberty (JSM, 1859, henceforth OL), on which we focus here. The need to limit himself to core economic themes, and the necessity to summarize an impressive number of sources and authors in a single book, may explain this choice. However, as Roncaglia (2008, 27; our translation) stresses, “the conception of economics as a social science cannot be locked in the restrictive boundaries of disciplinary specialization,” and we argue that JSM's not purely economic works still are a crucial foundation of modern liberal socialism and the associated economic policy stance—to which Roncaglia contributed especially in the Italian context.
As we attempt to show, JSM's treatment of the subject has many commonalities with Roncaglia's—the primacy of the moral dimension of social issues; the identification of the root (and main method) of democracy in the honest (as we will denote, “ethical”) debate rather than in mere voting; a nuanced view of the individual and her agency; a political bet on education at 360 degrees (including the “training” of responsible citizens); and a rejection of the intellectual distortions of biased, conservative liberalism, too often incorrectly superimposed with classical liberalism.
Of course, JSM's analyses require crucial updating to consider an enormously changed social context. This, we hope, will occupy some of our and Roncaglia's time in the next few years.
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- Classical Economics TodayEssays in Honor of Alessandro Roncaglia, pp. 45 - 60Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2018