IV.

Assessment

Throughout all his writing, Galbraith set out to make economics accessible to a lay readership, but he was not without his critics. Indeed, not all his fellow liberals shared his views on production and consumption (notwithstanding the opposition from those who believed in the free market economy). He sought to change people’s views on society and power in the world of the late 20th century by identifying the ways in which the activities of large organizations could supersede the classical mechanisms of supply and demand. Although some economic ideas have come to be labelled as “Galbraithian”, his particular views lacked momentum for want of a school; there was never a critical mass of graduate students or academic peers willing or prepared to take up the mantle and expound Galbraithian notions within the common paradigm of the economic theorist, namely a mathematical model. Galbraith’s writings are lucid and free of mathematics. This won him praise and a wide audience outside the profession but simultaneously fostered criticism from fellow academics who claimed he over-simplified. That he successfully popularized economics and demonstrated its usefulness in explaining and analysing events, while striving to uphold the highest of intellectual standards, is an achievement. It is not clear whether the criticism originated with his success as a popularizer or because he popularized while defending and promoting a particular liberal view. Galbraith operated within the spheres of political economy and, given his liberality and ready recognition of the limitations and fallibility of markets, was most unsympathetic to the dominant paradigms of the United States and United Kingdom in the 1980s, namely “Reaganomics” and “Thatcherism” (see Thatcher Governments).

Galbraith prided himself on his avoidance of esoteric economics. He remained grounded in practical (exoteric) economics and maintained his prolific publication record into his final years. His writings are characterized by dry wit, appealing (and often new) turns of phrase, and persuasive arguments. He strove to provide novel insights into the workings of political economic systems. That he attracted such criticism is itself some testimony to the messages he promulgated.

John Kenneth Galbraith died on April 29, 2006, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.