ABSTRACT
There have been several review and/or interpretive articles on post-Keynesianism and post-Keynesian economics in the last dozen years or so: Harris (1975), Eichner and Kregel (1975), Shapiro (1977), Davidson (1980a, 1981), Rowthorn (1974, 1981), Harcourt (1982d), Cohen and Cohen (1983), Groenewegen (1986), Amedeo and Dutt (1986). The American Economic Association devoted a session to the topic at its 1979 meeting in Atlanta, Georgia; see Tarshis (1980), Yellen (1980), Crotty (1980), Kenyon (1980) and Harcourt (1980). There have also been several volumes: Kregel’s Reconstruction of Political Economy (1973); Harris (1978); Eichner (1979, which reprints a series of articles on aspects of post-Keynesianism from Challenge); Nell (1980); Walsh and Gram (1980); Blatt (1983); Broome (1983); Lichtenstein (1983); Mainwaring (1984); Arestis and Skouras (1985, which reprints a number of the Thames Papers in Political Economy that are concerned with post-Keynesian economics); and Eichner (1985, which previews a much longer work on post-Keynesians and institutionalists which Eichner is preparing). Marglin recently published a major book (1984b), which attempts to synthesize some important strands in post-Keynesian and Marxian theory in so far as they relate to the problems of growth, distribution and prices; see also Bhadhuri (1986, which synthesizes major macroeconomic strands in Marx, Keynes and Kalecki) and Jarsulic (1987). But judging from the ongoing reactions in the profession (see, for example, Hahn 1982a, 1984; Solow 1984: 137–8) exactly what post-Keynesianism is about is still unclear in the minds of many. Post-Keynesians have not succeeded in getting their message through, partly because of the difficult and controversial economic issues upon which they have embarked, partly because of the diversity of theories which they have generated and partly because of the ideological suspicions of much of the profession today. Sometimes also the proposed theories conflict with one another; see, for example, Eatwell (1983) and Kregel (1983b) in the special Joan Robinson memorial issue of the Cambridge Journal of Economics.
