hmmm, I'd say that a liberal is someone who prescribes aspirin for a brain tumour while a radical is someone who prescribes open-skull surgery for a headache.
as far as the definition of a "radical economist" (as opposed to a radical who is also an economist), I'd say that the shibboleth would be the rejection of maybe two out of the following five: 1) von Neumann/Morgenstern utility theory 2) general equilibrium 3) the principle of marginal costs and associated concepts like productivity 4) free trade 5) national income accounting concepts simply rejecting efficient markets or rational expectations wouldn't make you radical; Brad DeLong does that. the list above are the real hard core of things you have to believe in order to get onto most graduate programs (Say's Law would have been on there pre-Keynes). I'd guess that any self-styled "post-Keynesian" would count as a radical economist if we assume that "radical" is to be taken purely as modifying "economist", and so would any Sraffian or most institutionalists, if there are any left. As would any Marxist. I would potentially call Austrian economists "radical economists", but I realise that at this point I am stretching ordinary usage much too far. dd -----Original Message----- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Craven, Jim Sent: 29 October 2004 19:39 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Radical Economics -----Original Message----- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Frank, Ellen Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 11:10 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L] Radical Economics I write a Q&A column for Dollars and Sense Magazine and the Q for the up-coming issue is ths: what's the difference between a radical and liberal economist (or a progressive vs liberal)? Naturally I have my own thoughts on this, but I'd love to hear what pen-lers have to say. Ellen Frank Response: As my mother used to say, a liberal (economist or otherwise) "is someone whose heart bleeds--but with other people's blood." A typical Liberal believes in an aspirin for a brain tumor; a radical believes in necessary radical surgery and in substantive changes to find and prevent the causes of brain tumors. A liberal believes in skin cream over a syphilitic rash whereas a radical believes in massive doses of the more effective anti-biotics plus lifestyle changes plus finding out and treating all those the person with syphilis came into contact with. A liberal believes in seeking the optimum arrangement of deck chairs on the titanic whereas a radical believes in taking over the ship and/or not getting on board in the first place. A liberal believes in superficial "civility" with the uncivil, "reasoned discourse" with those incapable of reason, the Jew "debating" and "winning over" the nazi... Jim C
