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2008 | Buch

Gunnar Myrdal

An Intellectual Biography

verfasst von: William J. Barber

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Buchreihe : Great Thinkers in Economics Series

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This study examines the manner in which Gunnar Myrdal's intellectual style left an impact on the shaping of Sweden's welfare state, on race relations in the United States, on post-World War Two economic cooperation in Europe, and on the analysis of Third World economic development.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
1. Beginnings and Early Intellectual Influences
Abstract
Gunnar Myrdal was born in 1898 in the Swedish province of Dalarna. His origins were humble: he could trace three centuries of peasant stock in his ancestry. His father, however, departed from that occupational pattern. Though equipped with little formal education, he succeeded as a largely self-taught member of the building trade, specializing in the construction of railway stations. His mother, who also had slight exposure to formal education, was a conscientious Lutheran. The young Myrdal and his three younger siblings were instructed in the teachings of that tradition — as were their contemporaries who participated in the ‘Kristendom’ (Christianity) program then obligatory in Swedish schools. As an adult, Myrdal lapsed from churchgoing. Even so, Biblical overtones lived on in his intellectual style.
William J. Barber
2. Early Challenges to Orthodoxy: The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory (first published in 1930)
Abstract
Myrdal defended his doctoral dissertation in the Spring of 1927 and received a ‘Laudatur’ — the highest possible grade, rarely awarded — for his performance. This achievement automatically qualified him for an appointment as a docent (associate professor) in the University. He embraced his new duties with enthusiasm and eagerly sought to make a mark in the profession. He later described his situation at that time as complicated by the fact that his senior colleagues represented ‘a hard crust of ability and authority, both tempting and deterring to anybody trying to sprout into independent thinking.’1
William J. Barber
3. Theorizing About Macro-Economic Instability: Monetary Equilibrium (versions of 1932, 1933, and 1939)
Abstract
Myrdal’s attack on his elders in Sweden’s community of economists — as set out in The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory — caused some consternation in Stockholm, but did not seriously compromise his ability to work with most of his professional colleagues. He served as a dutiful member of Gösta Bagge’s team — funded by the Rockefeller Foundation in New York — that was engaged in documenting Sweden’s economic history statistically.1 Myrdal contributed a substantial volume to this enterprise, entitled The Cost of Living in Sweden, 1830–1930, that was published in 1933. Though he had reservations about the quality of the data with which he had been obliged to work, he drew some satisfaction from his attempt to transcend the limitations of the raw material. In addition, he contributed a major essay — dealing with migration from the countryside to urban areas in Sweden since the mid-nineteenth century — to a volume honoring Gustav Cassel on the occasion of his retirement in 1933.
William J. Barber
4. Structuring Counter-Cyclical Fiscal Policies in the 1930s
Abstract
Myrdal formally joined Sweden’s Social Democratic Party in 1932. He marked the occasion by writing an essay entitled ‘The Dilemma of Social Policy’ — which he described as a ‘moral’ one. (There is an arresting symmetry in his choice of language here and the usages he later deployed. In 1944, one of the crowning achievements of his career was the publication of An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, which he then diagnosed as a ‘moral’ issue.)
William J. Barber
5. The Population Question and Swedish Social Policy in the 1930s
Abstract
In 1933, Myrdal was named the Lars Hierta Professor of Economics and Public Finance in the University of Stockholm. Cassel was delighted with this appointment. Even though he regarded Myrdal as ‘the most dangerous man in Sweden’ on account of his political views, Cassel still announced that he was proud to have him as his successor.
William J. Barber
6. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944)
Abstract
Over Myrdal’s long and multifaceted career, the preparation of An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy stands out as a signal event. In the United States particularly, those who may be totally ignorant of his fundamental achievements in economics are likely still to identify him with this book. It was massive in scale: just under 1500 pages in all (including 10 appendices). The outlays needed to complete it were record-shattering for a body of research in the social sciences — some $300 000 in 1930s dollars (or roughly ten times that sum if measured in dollars of the early twenty-first century). And the work had impact. It can properly be regarded as one of the few works of scholarship to alter the course of history.1 Even so, at a point or two along the way, it was touch-and-go whether or not this project would be brought to fruition.
William J. Barber
7. Minister of Commerce and Economic Policy-Making for Post-War Sweden, 1944–1947
Abstract
Leaving Arnold Rose behind to plug the last holes in the manuscript of An American Dilemma, Myrdal returned to Sweden in the autumn of 1942. He quickly re-engaged with Swedish politics. In 1943, he was re-elected to the seat for Dalarna in the Swedish Senate that he had vacated some 5 years earlier. He resumed this position in January 1944. He was also appointed to chair a Commission on Post-war Economic Planning. This body recommended that full employment should be the government’s paramount goal and urged that public spending on housing should be the primary instrument for balancing the economy to achieve this objective.1
William J. Barber
8. International Civil Servant and Studies of the International Economy, 1947–1957
Abstract
By the spring of 1947, it appeared that the brouhaha over Sweden’s trade agreement with the Soviet Union had seriously compromised Myrdal’s prospects for advancement in Swedish politics. It was fortuitous that an opportunity was then presented to him by Trygve Lie, Secretary-General of the United Nations, to head a new organization commissioned by the UN’s Economic and Social Council. The entity in question was to be designated as the ‘Economic Commission for Europe’ (subsequently referred to as ‘ECE’). This was the first regional organization to be created under the UN’s auspices and it was followed by similar commissions for Asia and the Far East and for Latin America.
William J. Barber
9. Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations (1968)
Abstract
As his ECE decade drew to a close, Myrdal solicited American foundations for support for a new and substantial research venture. In his prospectus, he described its objective as follows: to make ‘a balanced appraisal of the situation in Southern and South-eastern Asia as it is developing under the influences from outside and from within …. A main emphasis of the study … would be on the [economic] problems of the region as a whole …. (The) economic potentialities will be viewed in their social and political context. Thus the study will necessarily include an analysis of the new nationalism in the region, as it is conditioned by social, cultural, religious and racial conflicts.’1 This was an extension of the position he had articulated in writings on the prospects for national and international economic ‘integration’ in the later 1950s. At this juncture, his conception of the projected study directed attention to the way underdeveloped countries in the South Asian region were or were not shaping a self-confident economic nationalism which might ultimately be translated into economic integration internationally. There was a hint here as well that the potentialities for coordinated planning among various South Asian countries would be investigated.
William J. Barber
10. Economic Policy Advice-Giving for the Rich and the Poor in the 1960s and 1970s
Abstract
In the later stages of his prolific career, Myrdal published two volumes that recorded his mature thinking about economic policy-making. Both built on analytic foundations laid in his previous works. Both had their origins in invited lectures in the United States. Both had the noun ‘challenge’ in their titles.
William J. Barber
Epilogue
Abstract
In October 1974, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that it had named Gunnar Myrdal and Friedrich von Hayek as co-winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. The citation accompanying this announcement merits quotation at length.
William J. Barber
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Gunnar Myrdal
verfasst von
William J. Barber
Copyright-Jahr
2008
Verlag
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Electronic ISBN
978-0-230-28901-7
Print ISBN
978-1-349-54785-2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230289017