This book provides an intellectual portrait of John Kenneth Galbraith, an institutional economist who examines the configuration of power by the clusters of mores that comprise institutions. Galbraith proposes an aggressive social democratic policy to achieve social and economic reform. This policy includes explicit recognition that the state must intervene to countervail the power of entrenched political economic interests and to provide generous support of the arts and letters to achieve the affirmation of humanity.

JAMES RONALD STANFIELD is Professor of Economics at Colorado State University. He has been honoured by the Association for Social Economics with its Helen Potter Award and its presidency. He was 1995 President of the Association for Institutional Thought. His previous books and over 100 articles, reviews and book chapters have been preoccupied with developing the critical theories of Marxism and American institutionalism into effective discourse on the nature, limitations and reform of late capitalist society. The focal point of his work is to contribute to the development of a social and political economics that examines power and culture in relation to the economic process.

Preface - Acknowledgements - The Useful Economist - Economic Balance and Countervailing Power - Affluence and Social Imbalance - The Administered Society - The Social Predicament -Economic Doctrine and the Public Purpose - Social Reform and Economic Policy - Galbraith and Intellectual History - References - Index