Kalecki and Kowalik on the Dilemma of ‘Crucial Reform’ in the United States and Poland

Gary A. Dymski

Chapter 10 in Michał Kalecki in the 21st Century, 2015, pp 157-181 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter reflects on one of the recurrent themes in the work of Michał Kalecki and Tadeusz Kowalik — the challenge of the ‘crucial reform.’ During World War II, Kalecki posed the question of whether capitalist growth would face a limit due to constraints emanating from tensions between capitalists and workers regarding the conditions for political consent and the conditions for sustained growth. One possibility to avoid the threatened slowdown in economic growth would be a ‘crucial reform’ in the political and economic configuration underlying the capitalist economy. In the post-war period, this crucial reform was undertaken, making possible the period of relatively sustained growth and rising wages that is often termed the ‘golden age of capitalism’ (Marglin and Schor, 1991). As events unfolded in the 1970s and 1980s, ‘golden age’ growth was undermined, and the question was posed whether another ‘crucial reform’ would be possible. This same time period brought the socialist economies of Eastern Europe face-to-face with their own need for a ‘crucial reform’.

Keywords: Unemployment Rate; Business Cycle; Productivity Growth; Socialist Economy; Capitalist Economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:pshchp:978-1-137-42828-8_11

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137428288

DOI: 10.1057/9781137428288_11

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().