Breaking with orthodoxy
The politics of economic policy responses to the Depression of the 1930s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7300787 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Gourevitch (0000-0002-2698-8737, University of California System, corresponding author), Peter Alexis Gourevitch |
| Year | 1984 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 95-129 |
| Publication date | 1984-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Organization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-8183 • E-ISSN: 1531-5088 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0020818300004288 |
| OpenAlex | W2103000680 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 54 |
| References cited | 62 |
Under the same systemic shock, the collapse of the international economy in 1929, different countries formulated different policy responses. Britain, Germany, the United States, France, and Sweden all began by attempting the orthodoxy of deflation. Soon after, they abandoned deflation, devalued their currencies, erected tariff barriers, and set up corporatistic production and marketing arrangements. A few countries went further, and began experimenting with demand-stimulus fiscal policy. The most successful was Nazi Germany; the Swedish and U.S. efforts were much more limited and less effective, the French attempt crumbled in less than a year, and Britain never tried demand stimulus. Why this divergence in policy? The politics of policy response, the societal basis of different policy coalitions and the way in which they were expressed through different political formulations, suggests an answer. In all countries, labor, agriculture, and certain elements of business became available for revolts against policy orthodoxy. What differed across countries was the specific balance of forces among these interest groups, and the political factors that shaped their combinations. The effect of political leadership, institutions, and other variables on outcomes depended critically on the way specific social forces in each society used and worked through them
Deflation · Economics · Great Depression · Monetary economics · Monetary policy · Orthodoxy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Stimulus (psychology · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · History · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Politics and markets
Critics of totalitarianism
Fascism and racism
The advent of the masses and the making of the modern theory of democracy
Conservatism
Nationalism and imperialism
The end of the welfare state?
The Road to Repression
The coming of the welfare state
Hungary – A Hungarian Crisis or Just a Crisis in Hungary?
Christian democracy
Conclusion
Ireland – Limited Restructuration in the Poster Child of Austerity
European Party Politics in Times of Crisis
Spain – Out with the Old
Portugal – A Tale of Apparent Stability and Surreptitious Transformation
Crises and the Transformation of the National Political Space in Europe
The (International) Political Economy of Falling Wage Shares
Privatization and Democracy
Rebuilding the American State
Tax Policy and Presidential Leadership
British Capitalism at the Crossroads
Politicizing Europe in Hard Times
Materiale Politisierung der Produktion
The importance of education and training policies in supporting technological revolutions
Negotiating Crisis
The French Great Depression
The Politics of Full Employment in Western Democracies
The Euro’s “Winner-Take-All” Political Economy
Economic and Political Reactions to the World Economic Crisis of the 1930s in Six European Countries
Government stability in six European countries during the world economic crisis of the 1930s
External Ambition and Economic Performance
Economic Downturns and Political Competition since the 1870s
Explaining choice of development strategies
Rocks, hard places, and the new protectionism
The irony of state strength
Distributional coalitions and other sources of economic stagnation
Unemployment, Collective Bargaining, and the Demand for Protection
Governing by Panic
The role of knowledge in the policy process
Toward a Realist Theory of State Action
Globalization, Factor Mobility, Partisanship, and Compensation Policies
Compensating Autocratic Elites
Four theories of public policy making and fast breeder reactor development
The international economy as a constraint on U. S. macroeconomic policymaking
Sectoral conflict and foreign economic policy, 1914–1940
War and strong states, peace and weak states
The electoral consequences of two great crises
Political economy of central banks
The International–National Connection
The Westland affair
Housing in US Fordism
Myth and Reality in Business Support for Democrats and Republicans in the 1936 Presidential Election
The Political Economy of Trade
Sterling and British policy
U.S. Power and the Multinational Corporation
National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade
State and Economy in Contemporary Capitalism
The Rise and Decline of Nations
The New Jacobins
Big Business and the Rise of Hitler
State and economy in contemporary capitalism
Organized Business in France
The Collapse of the Weimar Republic
Stresemann and the Politics of the Weimar Republic, by Henry Ashby Turner, Jr.
Corporatism and change
Who Voted for Hitler
On the Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
Iron and Steel in the German Inflation, 1916-1923
The Crime and Punishment of I. G. Farben
The Emergence of the “New Economics” in Sweden
French Labor
The Keynesian Revolution in Sweden
International Trade, Domestic Coalitions, and Liberty
Unions, change and crisis
Economics and Policy
French Labor from Popular Front to Liberation
Reflections on the Blum Experiment
Unemployment and the Economists in the 1920's
The Economic Lessons of the Nineteen-Thirties
The Lesson of the Blum Experiment
Building in the British Economy between the Wars
Economic Recovery in Britain 1932-39
Swedish Economic Policy
Emil Kirdorf and the Nazi Party
The Ruhrlade , Secret Cabinet of Heavy Industry in the Weimar Republic
Hitler's Economic Thought
IV. Big-Business Pressure Groups and Bismarck's Turn to Protectionism, 1873–79
Political Response to Capitalist Crisis
Working Class in Welfare Capitalism
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The second image reversed
The political consequences of the product cycle
The Life and Times of Ernest Bevin
State Capacity and Economic Intervention in the Early New Deal
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Hitler's Secret Pamphlet for Industrialists, 1927
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The Reduction of Unemployment as a Problem of Public Policy, 1920-291
The Reduction of Unemployment as a Problem of Public Policy, 1920-29
A Swedish Road to Socialism
Building in the British Economy between the Wars
Un debat toujours ouvert
Critiques de gauche et opposition revolutionnaire au front populaire (1936-1938)
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Fascism-a Reader's Guide
| Unique citing works | 54 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,32 |
| Citation span | 1985 - 2025 (41) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 54 |