12 - The origins of the Galbraithian system: talking to John Kenneth Galbraith

Summary

The fact that the general conditions of life are not stationary is the source of many of the difficulties that are met with in applying economic doctrines to practical problems.

Alfred Marshall (1920: 347)

On June 22, 2001 I talked at length with J. K. Galbraith and his wife Catherine – affectionately referred to as Kitty – who was a constant companion and co-organizer throughout his career, about his intellectual history, the origins of his contribution to the theory of the firm and his relationships and experiences with both the two Cambridges and Post Keynesianism. An edited and abridged summary of our discussion is reproduced below.

The origins of the Galbraithian vision

dunn: How would you describe the Galbraithian system and where do you see its origins? Would it be correct to view it as a reconstruction of economics after the dissolution of the Marshallian system ushered in by Sraffa (1926), Chamberlin (1933), and Robinson (1933) and their recognition of the rise of the modern, large corporation, or would it be more appropriate to view it as part of the old Institutionalist literature and embedded very much in Veblen's (1904) Theory of the Business Enterprise?

galbraith: One of the things about your question that interests me is that I never thought there was a Galbraith system. And in some ways it is a rather new question to me because what I've done all my life is start from the usual starting point, which was a thorough and complete grounding in Alfred Marshall. The first main course I had in economics was at Berkeley; that was after I left Canada where the economics instruction was very poor. […]