Political Philosophy II

Abstract

A crucial question for liberalism is the respective roles of the private and public spheres. This chapter reviews Keynes’s attitude to laissez-faire and individualism, and adumbrates in some detail the various functions and duties of the state that arise within his framework. To Keynes, the state’s role extended not only beyond the macroeconomic but beyond the economic as well. The nature of Keynes’s liberalism is then explored, it being contended that the neglect of Keynes’s philosophy has engendered a certain one-sidedness in recent debate. Given his Utopian goals, Keynes’s relationship to socialism is equally intriguing. While state socialism was flatly rejected, an alternative conception of liberal socialism was proposed. Several underlying themes will become apparent — a basic continuity over time in his general political stances, the background influence of his philosophy, and an encouragement of adaptability to historical change.

The prevention of occurrences contrary to the public interest … ought in general to be the first object of Government.

J.M. Keynes 1913

The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty.

J.M. Keynes 1926

My own aim is economic reform by the methods of political liberalism.

J.M. Keynes 1934

… it is only on lines of liberalism that there can be a peaceful, non-violent evolution of social and economic institutions.

J.M. Keynes 1939

One dislikes intensely seeing some of the best causes in the world so lowered in their place and their degree.

J.M. Keynes 1943¹