Capital‐Labour Tensions and Liberal Economic Thought

Abstract

It was typical in nineteenth century economic thought to view the tensions between the interests of capital and labour as critical to industrial society. Yet later economic thought has generally reduced these tensions to those captured in contract theory. Explores how this narrowing of focus has cast an important source of contemporary social dynamics into the shadows. A broad survey is made of the various ways in which capital‐labour tensions are manifested in today′s advanced industrial economies, with special attention given to the case of the USA. Concludes with a discussion of how intensified international competitiveness, combined with our increasing distance from the threat of material privation, may force societies to restructure their economies so as to eliminate the source of capital‐labour tensions. The task facing liberal economic thought is to expand its scope to better provide guidance for meeting this challenge.

Citation

Wisman, J.D. (1992), "Capital‐Labour Tensions and Liberal Economic Thought", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 19 No. 10/11/12, pp. 279-297. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000000518