The Meaning and Function of Economic Policy Today

In: The review of politics, Band 5, Heft 2, S. 216-224

Abstract

Most people today mean not one but two things, when they speak of "Economic Policy". Sometimes they mean the attainment of economic ends by means of political techniques: the "economic" concept of economic policy. Or again they mean the attainment of noneconomic, political ends by means of economic techniques: the "political" concept of economic policy. The first concept is the one the professional economist would be likely to use; and it is the only one current in economic theory. The other, the "political" concept, is that of practical politics today. It is not only war economics—whether of the Democracies or of the Nazis—that is based on a "political" economic policy but also many plans for the future such as, for instance, the Beveridge Report. For the "security" to which this and similar plans aspire, is not an economic concept but a political and social one; and it is "economic security" only because its realization is sought through economic means.