John Kenneth Galbraith: The Economist as Political Theorist is a comprehensive analysis of John Kenneth Galbraith's political economy, placing him within the development and evolution of twentieth century American liberalism. This book examines the continuing link between politics and economics in American political discourse by locating Galbraith in a framework of liberal and conservative theory, controversy, alternatives, and policy. By analyzing Galbraith's complex arguments, Waligorski addresses important issues about the content and nature of American political thought and policy conflict including freedom, equality, inequality, individualism, democracy, the legitimate role of government, the nature of a good society, the structure of modern capitalism, and the failure of contemporary economic theory to serve as a guide to a better life. Many of the issues that drive contemporary politics today are simultaneously political, economic, and ideological. As an economist, political theorist, and cultural critic, Galbraith epitomizes this interconnection.

John Kenneth Galbraith: The Economist as Political Theorist is a comprehensive analysis of John Kenneth Galbraith's political economy, placing him within the development and evolution of twentieth century American liberalism. This book examines the continuing link between politics and economics in American political discourse by locating Galbraith in a framework of liberal and conservative theory, controversy, alternatives, and policy. By analyzing Galbraith's complex arguments, Waligorski addresses important issues about the content and nature of American political thought and policy conflict including freedom, equality, inequality, individualism, democracy, the legitimate role of government, the nature of a good society, the structure of modern capitalism, and the failure of contemporary economic theory to serve as a guide to a better life. Many of the issues that drive contemporary politics today are simultaneously political, economic, and ideological. As an economist, political theorist, and cultural critic, Galbraith epitomizes this interconnection."

Assailed by conservative critics in Congress, academia, and television talk shows, liberal economics may be in a fight for its political life. Conrad Waligorski contends, however, that rumors of its death are premature and far from desirable. His close analysis of the political theories of John Maynard Keynes, John Kenneth Galbraith, Lester Thurow, and Robert Reich reveals why liberal economics remains a vigorous force in the debates over our nation's future.

Waligorski argues that, despite individual differences, these economists are bound together by a common vision of the public good. Collectively, these thinkers represent a strong counter tradition to the laissez-faire, free-market philosophy of James Buchanan, Milton Friedman, F. A. Hayek, Newt Gingrich, and other proponents of minimalist government and "trickle-down economics."

Contrary to such critics, liberal economists advocate government regulation as a guard against the power of the marketplace to erode our most cherished political values and social institutions. For these economists, a completely free market is definitely not the best market for democracy; an unrestrained market guarantees neither fairness nor prosperity and in Keynes' time nearly destroyed our nation.

Waligorski locates the roots of their tradition in the thought exemplified by American Progressives John Dewey and Louis Brandeis and British liberal L. T. Hobhouse. But he also shows that these economists are no ivory tower theorists, that they are genuinely engaged with real-world problems and politics. Indeed, all of these theorists have written for a broad public in an effort to influence public policy and all have been political activists and/or advisors at various points in their careers.

A fitting sequel and companion to Waligorski's last book, The Political Theory of Conservative Economists, this new work provides a provocative challenge to the relentless conservative and libertarian attacks on the regulatory welfare state. Certainly, few debates will be more closely watched in this presidential election year.

It's difficult to overstate the impact of conservative economics on American life. The conservative thought of economists like Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Friedrick Hayek has provided the conceptual framework that undergirds nearly every aspect of current U.S. social-economic policy. Although a great deal has been written about the economic theories of these Nobel Prize-winning economists, this study is the first to examine the political theory that underlies conservative economics and its implications for public policy. Long associated with the "Chicago" and "public choice" schools of thought, Friedman, Buchanan, Hayek, and others have consistently repudiated Keynesian principles. They have steadfastly opposed social welfare policies and regulation of private enterprise, championing instead the free market as a mechanism for ordering society. In this book Conrad Waligorski analyzes the political content of the conservative economists' arguments. In so doing, he illuminates the political, economic, and philosophical ideas behind and justification for the laissez-faire policy-the reduced regulation, intervention, and welfare favored by conservative governments in the United States, Canada, and Britain.