ABSTRACT
Axel Leijonhufvud’s interpretation of Keynes has been met at various times by enthusiasm, denunciation and indifference. Interpreters of Keynes have extracted what they each regarded as integral to The General Theory. There is little effective communication between them. Alan Coddington (1976) identified three types of Keynesians: the reductionist, the fundamentalist and the hydraulicist. There are differences of substance, style and emphasis. Robert Clower and Axel Leijonhufvud are members of the first group.1 The fundamentalist Post-Keynesians, Joan Robinson, Richard Kahn, Nicholas Kaldor, G.L.S.Shackle and Paul Davidson, are in the second; and Paul Samuelson and the neoclassical Keynesians, in the third. The variety of interpretation itself suggests that Keynes could have made himself clearer, but the phenomenon of multiple interpretation also arises with many other authors. In fact, portions of The General Theory partially support each construction.
