ABSTRACT
In the postwar period, concealed in part by the pre-eminence of Keynesianism, the ascent of neoclassical economics began, solidly based in rejuvenated general equilibrium theory and strong in both its theoretical coherence and its foundation in the academic tradition. This orthodoxy, rooted in some aspects of classical economics but generated by the marginalist revolution, privileges homo economicus, and therefore, a general conception of rationality revolving around a few elementary choices, market, optimum and equilibrium. It does not claim to give a direct account of the real world, but it imposes itself as the theoretical benchmark for all economists and in particular for those in academia. The paradox is that none of the classical economists, none of the fathers of the marginalist revolution, and none of the great economists of the twentieth century who have contributed to the development of neoclassical analysis, limited his thinking or writing to this theoretical development within its unrealistic framework. Nevertheless, the indestructible neoclassical edifice continues to dominate both theoretical debate and the teaching of economics.
