Thorstein Veblen: Incrementalist and Utopian

Abstract

A CRITICISM commonly voiced against the work of Thorstein Veblen is that he failed to move from acting as a social critic and theorist to the realm of policy prescription (1). This criticism is not without validity but it places insufficient emphasis on Veblen's numerous policy recommendations which are sometimes implicit in his analysis rather than overt. While Veblen sponsored reform proposals of an incremental rather than of a utopian nature and suggested technical means for achieving economic and political changes, it is no doubt true that his main impact has been as a theorist and social critic, not as a policy prescriber. Nevertheless it is our main task to show that both incrementalist policy prescription and utopian social theory are important parts of his analysis, and that they are linked with his methodological employment of constructed types. The introduction will briefly explain the basic outline of Veblen's political sociology, his theory of social and economic change, and its relationship to his conception of the future of the industrial state. The author will then 1) analyze those policy proposals Veblen made which are essentially incrementalist (2); 2) summarize that part of his social theory and criticism which is clearly utopian in nature 3) show how Veblen used ideal and mixed types as methodological and explanatory devices and indicate how this usage is related to his role as a theorist and policy advocate of both incremental and utopian reform (3). It is often difficult to distinguish Veblen's incrementalist policy prescriptions from his utopian proposals since his incrementalism is often based on the assumption of radical change in the institutional fabric of society before piecemeal change is undertaken. What is designated here as incrementalism are policy proposals, usually made to men in power, which were not of such a broad scope as to necessitate wholesale renovation of existing social institutions.