Galbraith on Economics as a System of Professional Belief

Abstract

John Kenneth Galbraith is neither an historian of economic thought nor a sociologist of science.1 Nonetheless, his writings contain both substantive analysis and brief comments on the nature and development of economics as a system of belief, particularly a system of professional belief. The objective of this article is to bring together and systematize Galbraith’s ideas on that subject.KeywordsPlanning SystemBelief SystemPower StructureVested InterestEconomic RealityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.