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Post-Keynesian Economics and Politics: Toward an Expectationist Theory of Democracy?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 June 2011
Abstract
Recent economic theory places growing emphasis on the importance of psychological expectations in economic behavior and policy implementation. This article reviews four recent books on political economy which analyze failures in Keynesian macroeconomic management in light of social and political pressures in advanced democratic nations (especially Britain and the United States). Public choice theories focusing on the myopic behavior of voters and structuralist interpretations stressing class or corporatist conflict are discussed; but the author concludes that political as well as economic response to uncertain conditions is best understood in terms of how future expectations shape current preferences. James Alt's pioneering research on British public opinion suggests that expectational adaptation may hold the key to democratic stability as well as economic adjustment.
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References
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