Our Mixed Economy

Abstract

THE PHRASE, economy, is not yet a venerable cliche, but it is already a significant one. It has been widely used in this country only since Alvin Hansen and other American Keynesians began popularizing it a dozen years ago. Of all the watchwords now clogging public policy discussion, however, the term probably comes closest to encompassing what there is of a doctrine or conceptual core among moderate, slightly-left-of-center, postwar liberals. And, by the same token, its fuzziness and lack of charm evidence the terminological doldrums into which vital center has drifted. The ideological plight of middle-of-the-roaders has been well publicized. Roll the words mixed economy around your tongue for a moment, and you have the essence of it. Smacking as they do of vegetables and metaphors, they invite a neither-fish-nor-fowl indictment. And this, of course, they regularly incur from critics, like Professor Hayek, who make the most of middle-of-the-roaders' classic propensity for being put semantically on the defensive. Invariably moderates get trapped into arguing their case in the language of the extremes on either hand. As soon as they do, their credos become constipated with exceptions, qualifications, and apparent inconsistencies.