The Discussion of Public Works Programmes, 1917–1935: Some Remarks on the Labour Movement's Contribution

In: International review of social history, Band 11, Heft 1, S. 8-17

Abstract

One of the by-products of the Keynesian Revolution has been a painstaking search for precursors of Keynes. Diligent academics have compiled an impressive array of "proto-Keynesians", although some have only slender claims to the title. There has been a preoccupation with those writers whose contributions were exclusively theoretical. This bias is surprising in view of the nature of Keynes' own approach which was to progress from policy prescription to theory. The "proto-Keynesians" in general failed to proceed to Keynesian policy prescriptions, being unable to withstand the attacks of orthodox theorists; yet some commentators, ignorant of theoretical niceties, intuitively arrived at policy programmes which Keynes later endorsed. This latter group placed particular emphasis on public works programmes as a method of combating unemployment. Economists have credited the Liberal Party, J. M. Keynes and H. D. Henderson with being the first, in the inter-war years, to emphasise public works as one solution to the problem of chronic unemployment. Klein, examining Keynes' and Henderson's arguments in support of the Liberal Party's 1929 General Election commitment to a public works programme, states that "no one was thinking seriously along these lines at the time of the Great Depression." Most other commentators have stressed the original nature of the Liberal programme of 1929, notably Harrod, Macgregor and Dillard. The purpose of this paper is to indicate the contribution of the Labour movement to the inter-war discussion of public works. It is contended that there has been undue emphasis on the Liberal Party's literature of the 1920S and early 1030s. In fact, the Liberal programme was in many respects similar to that which had been expounded by trade unionists and the Labour Party since 1917. To establish this argument it is necessary, first, to outline the historical background against which the inter-war discussion of public works took place.