Book contents
- Monitoring the State or the Market
- Monitoring the State or the Market
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The Period until the Great Depression
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Early Views on the Economic Role of the State
- 3 Laissez Faire and the Industrial Revolution
- 4 The Beginning of Economic Reforms
- 5 On Resource Allocation, Optimality, and Equity
- 6 Beginning of Changes in the Activities of Governments
- 7 Toward Larger Government Roles
- Part II From Laissez Faire to Welfare States: 1930 to 1970
- Part III The Period after the 1970s
- References
- Index
7 - Toward Larger Government Roles
from Part I - The Period until the Great Depression
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2023
- Monitoring the State or the Market
- Monitoring the State or the Market
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The Period until the Great Depression
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Early Views on the Economic Role of the State
- 3 Laissez Faire and the Industrial Revolution
- 4 The Beginning of Economic Reforms
- 5 On Resource Allocation, Optimality, and Equity
- 6 Beginning of Changes in the Activities of Governments
- 7 Toward Larger Government Roles
- Part II From Laissez Faire to Welfare States: 1930 to 1970
- Part III The Period after the 1970s
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter covers: the return to unrestrained laissez faire in the 1920s; realization by some economists of some failures in the functioning of free markets; the discovery of monopolistic competition and of potential shortcoming in aggregate demand; Keynes proposes countercyclical fiscal policy to support demand; conservative resistance to changes and views that governmental intervention would inevitably corrupt the role and the efficiency of free markets; fear of contamination from the “Russian communist revolution”; race riots in the United States, fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany; the impact of the Great Depression on employment and production; growing doubts about free market policies; realization that market operators might not always be constrained by competition but might create cartels and engage in other abuses; Hayek’s Road to Serfdom and his influence; increasingly, many begin to see in a new light a potential role of the government; should the government correct only presumed allocation problems, or also problems in the distribution of income?; the policies of the New Deal in the United States in the 1930s, and the Beverage proposed reforms in the United Kingdom in 1942; making income distribution less unequal became more acceptable; taxes became more progressive; and conservative opposition continued.
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- Monitoring the State or the MarketFrom Laissez Faire to Market Fundamentalism, pp. 41 - 52Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023