Expedience and experimentation

John Maynard Keynes and the politics of time

Bibliographic Data

ID6232501
AuthorsStefan Eich (0000-0001-5285-1112, Georgetown University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume69
Issue1
Pages371-382
Publication date2025-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ajps.12839
OpenAlexW4391817808
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited56

John Maynard Keynes is often seen as the quintessential thinker of the short run, calling on us to focus our intellectual and material resources on the present. This poses an intriguing puzzle in light of Keynes's own influential speculations about the future. I use this seeming tension as an opening into Keynes's politics of time, both as a crucial dimension of his political thought and a contribution to debates about political temporality and intertemporal choice. Keynes's insistence on radical uncertainty translated into a skepticism toward intertemporal calculus as not only morally objectionable but also at risk of undermining actual future possibilities. Instead of either myopic presentism or calculated futurity, Keynes advocated bold experimentation in the present to open up new possibilities for an uncertain future. This points to the need to grapple with how to align multiple overlapping time horizons while appreciating the performativity of competing conceptions of the future

Arrow · Dimension (graph theory · Economics · Epistemology · Performativity · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Presentism · Skepticism · Sociology · Temporality · Economic Theory and Institutions · Law · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

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