ABSTRACT
The inability to obtain a positivist subjective economic theory leaves us with two choices. We can either remain true to the positivist philosophy and accept the possibility of economic planning, or we can maintain a subjective theory at the cost of abandoning our claim to positivist science. In this chapter we will look at the ‘English debate’ on market socialism which, although the protagonists did not always realise it at the time, was directly concerned with this question. The 1930s market socialists attempted to base a socialist theory on the models of welfare economics we outlined in the last chapter. 1 This position was criticised by the Austrian school, who dismissed not only the socialist models, but also their positivist, orthodox basis. While their critique appears cogent, the move from positivist to normative theory carries with it the condition that an account be made of the political elements in the theory, and the attempts of the Austrians to abstract from political and economic power renders their substantive theory no more plausible than that of the orthodox economists.
