Economic philosophy and American problems: classical mechanism, Marxist dialectic, and cultural evolution

Abstract

Economic thought in the modern world has been dominated by three major theoretical paradigms: the static model based on Newtonian classical mechanics which underlies neoclassical economics, the Hegelian dialectical model incorporated in Marxian economics, and the evolutionary model developed by Veblen which is embedded in neoinstitutional economics. In this book Floyd McFarland presents and critiques these paradigms and undertakes the first systematic effort to demonstrate the superiority of neoinstitutional theory over Marxism and neoclassicism. He concludes with a series of provocative policy recommendations regarding taxation, welfare, and agriculture derived from the analytical and normative structure of neoinstitutional economics.