John Maynard Keynes: The Role Of State In Economic Development

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Introduction The role of state in economic development has long existed around the world. Due to the economic depression of 1930 the existing economic theories were not able to give any apt explanations for this worldwide economic collapse. This provided a backdrop for a revolution spearheaded by John Maynard Keynes. John Maynard Keynes was an influential policy analyst and economist. His book titled “The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money” was published in 1936 i.e. during the Great Depression and became the basis of modern macroeconomics. Keynes supports government intervention during economic turmoil in the capitalist economy. Keynes believed that it was the role of the state to build a bridge between the economy’s potential…show more content…
He believed that the only way to put demand for goods and services up and running were with the help of government spending so as to put money into the private sectors. The US president Franklin Roosevelt gave this a try in his massive public works program to employ a portion of the idle workforce. According to his theory in the short run, the level of income, output or employment is determined by the level of aggregate effective demand. The aggregate demand is composed of demand for consumption goods and investment goods i.e. the aggregate demand depends on the total expenditure of the consumer on consumption goods and entrepreneurs on investment goods. In free private enterprises, the entrepreneurs will produce that much of goods as can be sold by them profitably. If the aggregate demand is large i.e. if the expenditure on goods and services is large, the entrepreneurs will be able to sell a large amount of goods at profit and so they will produce more. In order to produce more they will employ a large amount of resources that will include both labour and materials. Thus a higher level of aggregate demand leads to greater output, income and…show more content…
These countries were able to improve their previous development momentum. The government in these countries played a very active role and brought about market friendly institutional and policy changes in order to compete and develop both. This marked the arrival of ‘developmental state’ in the third world countries. The ‘developmental state’ was based on Keynesian ideology. Example the South Korean government shifted to export led growth from ISI in order to create a favourable environment for the big businesses to prosper and at the same time compete in international markets. It was believed that the miracle of East Asian countries was not because of the ‘invisible hand’ of God but by the ‘invisible hand’ of the

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