Artikel

Michael Kalecki en het ontstaan van het post-Keynesiaans neo-Marisme

---

Abstract

Michal Kalecki and the origin of Post-Keynesian Neo-Marxism - Some British (J. Robinson) and American (L. Klein, G. R. Feiwel) authors assert that the main concepts and theories, which made up “The Keynesian Revolution” were not discovered by Keynes but by the Polish economist Michal Kalecki. Whatever the truth in this statement, it was not Kalecki but Keynes who, due to his fame as a specialist in monetary theory, had the necessary prestige to impose the new concepts and theories on a recalcitrant community of neo-classical economists. So the Keynesion Revolution was his work, not that of Kalecki. However, this doesn’t mean that Kalecki was just another forgotten forerunner of Keynes; somebody who played in the development of modern macroeconomics a role akin to that fulfilled by Gossen in the development of the theory of marginal value. During his stay in London (1936-1937), Cambridge (1938-1939) and Oxford (1940-1945) Kalecki could, due to his early studies about the macro-economics of business cycles, show left wing Keynesians how they should use the new macro-economics for proving fundamental deficiencies of the capitalist system. Himself a socialist, Kalecki had studied the works of Marx and some of his followers (Tugan-Baranowsky, Rosa Luxemburg) and included in his writings some marxian and post-marxian theories. It is pointed out in this article that the main post-Keynesian neo-marxists namely Jean Robinson, Nichlas Kaldor and Joseph Steindl adopted the theories of Kalecki, concerning business cycles, price and income distribution and economic policy. So they were indirectly influenced by marxian and post-marxian ideas. Most of them studied Marx and some post-marxian authors by themselves, but only after they had already been influenced thoroughly by Kalecki, so their neo-marxism kept some flavour of Kalecki’s original and critical mind. They never turned to orthodox marxism, but developed a theory of their own, intended to explain the mechanics of the contemporary neo-capitalist system. So they brought new life in what seemed a defunct doctrine only suited for a small group of fanatic and narrowminded extremists. It is Kalecki’s great merit, to have fostered such a development by creating some missing links between marxian and post-marxian theories and the new macro-economics.

How to Cite:

Vandewalle, G., (1977) “Michael Kalecki en het ontstaan van het post-Keynesiaans neo-Marisme”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 22(3), 239–264. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.96063