The revolution that was - or wasn't: A meta-analysis of the Keynesian revolution debate

Arne Heise

No 128, ZÖSS-Discussion Papers from University of Hamburg, Centre for Economic and Sociological Studies (CESS/ZÖSS)

Abstract: Following Lawrence Klein's designation of a 'Keynesian Revolution', the impact of John Maynard Keynes's The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money has remained contested. While early interpretations viewed it as a refinement of neoclassical equilibrium theory, later accounts increasingly characterized it as revolutionary break. Drawing on a meta- synthesis of journal articles explicitly addressing the Keynesian Revolution, this paper shows that such claims are typically justified intuitively rather than on explicit philosophy-of-science grounds, even after Thomas S. Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Where analytical criteria are applied, conclusions hinge on whether Keynes's theory transforms the ontological and epistemological foundations of economics or merely modifies them. The findings suggest that most interpretations reflect intra-paradigmatic variation rather than a genuine scientific revolution suggesting 'a revolution that never was'.

Keywords: Keynesian Revolution; Thomas S. Kuhn; Say's Theorem; Walras's Law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 B20 B31 E12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/341982/1/1974165922.pdf (application/pdf)

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:zbw:cessdp:341982

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ZÖSS-Discussion Papers from University of Hamburg, Centre for Economic and Sociological Studies (CESS/ZÖSS) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().