ABSTRACT
The Keynesian model and policy prescription reviewed in the previous chapter quickly gained widespread acceptance, both amongst economists and in terms of political commitments. In the United States the New Deal was quickly viewed as a kind of proto-Keynesianism; although even as late as the 1960s some Republicans remained publicly opposed to ‘deficit spending’. The return of a Democratic President, Kennedy, in 1960 inaugurated a period in which some of the leading Keynesian economists in the United States played a prominent role in economic policy-making. Until 1980, it is probably correct to say that Keynesian policies were followed even under Republican Presidents. 1 In most other developed countries, there was a much quicker acceptance of Keynesian policies by political parties spanning the political spectrum. For example, in the United Kingdom a bipartisan commitment to the government's responsibility for the achievement of full employment was based on a report which was completed even before the end of the Second World War.
