John Kenneth Galbraith
The Canadian-born, Berkeley-trained John Kenneth Galbraith has been considered by many as the "Last American Institutionalist". As a result, Galbraith has remained something of a renegade in modern economics - and his work has been nothing if not provocative. In the 1950s, he presented economics with two tracts that needled the mainstream: one developing a theory of price control (which arose out of his wartime experience in the Office of Price Administration) which he argued for as an anti-inflation policy (1952); the second, American Capitalism (1952), which argued that American post-war success arose not out of "getting the prices right" in an orthodox sense, but rather of "getting the prices wrong" and allowing industrial concentration to develop. It is a formula for growth because it enables technical innovation which might otherwise not been done. However, it can only be regarded as successful provided there is a "countervailing power" against potential abuse in the form of trade unions, supplier and consumer organizations and government regulation. Many have since argued the formula for East Asian success later in the century was based precisely on this combination of oligopolistic power and "countervailing" institutions.
It was his smallish 1958 book, The Affluent Society, that earned Galbraith his popular reknown and professional emnity. Although the thesis was not astoundingly new - having long been argued by Veblen, Mitchell and Knight - his attack on the myth of "consumer sovereignty" went against the cornerstone of mainstream economics and, in many ways, the culturally hegemonic "American way of life".
His New Industrial State (1967) expanded on Galbraith's theory of the firm, arguing that the orthodox theories of the perfectly competitive firm fell far short in analytical power. Firms, Galbraith claimed, were oligopolistic, autonomous institutions vying for market share (and not profit maximization) which wrested power away from owners (entrepreneurs/shareholders), regulators and consumers via conventional means (e.g. vertical integration, advertising, product differentiation) and unconventional ones (e.g. bureaucratization, capture of political favor), etc. Naturally, these were themes already well-espoused in the old American Institutionalist literature, but in the 1960s, they had been apparently forgotten in economics.
The issue of "political capture" by firms was expanded upon in his 1973 Economics and the Public Purpose. But new themes were added - notably, that of public education, the political process and stressing the provision of public goods.
Although often not acknowledging it explicitly, many economists have since pursued themes raised by Galbraith.
In the case of Tomcik v. Ohio Dep’t of Rehabilitation & Correction, the main issue present was the medical negligence demonstrated by the staff of the medical clinic at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction towards the inmate Tomcik. Specifically, nonfeasance, or the “failure to act, when there is a duty to act as a reasonably prudent person would in similar circumstances” (Pozgar, 2016, p. 192), was displayed when the employees at the medical clinic failed to give immediate medical attention to Tomcik when she continually signed the clinic list and “provided the reason she was requesting
In a nutshell, it can be argued that in the event of serious economic developments, various people and groups held different views of what exactly a wealthy society should be. It is crystal clear that Andrew Carnegie and William Graham Sumner held same view on wealth accumulation whereas Henry George strongly advocated for policies that would enhance equality.
In ‘The Great Gatsby’ Fitzgerald criticises the increase of consumerism in the 1920s and the abandonment of the original American Dream , highlighting that the increased focus on wealth and the social class associated with it has negative effects on relationships and the poorest sections of society. The concept of wealth being used as a measure of success and worth is also explored by Plath in ‘The Bell Jar’. Similarly, she draws attention to the superficial nature of this material American Dream which has extended into the 1960s, but highlights that gender determines people’s worth in society as well as class.
The movie “The Great Gatsby” illustrates the stereotypes and the conditions that society lived in, the different roles and duties society had in order to be successful. Regardless gender or color the chance for success must be distributive as equal, but it was not distribute equally. Society set of mind were negatively despised by lower class. "A person who was not well-to-do and who did not belong to the right club or attend the right school was considered not only poor, but sinful. The pursuit of wealth came to have a meaning which transcended the mere desire to be more comfortable. It served in an attempt to erase original sin and earn eternal salvation. Striving for wealth has become a way for Americans to ease their consciences, while
Although most economists cannot come to agreement on the definition of economics, the preceding quote from l. Robbins, in my opinion, seems to just about sum it up. Since the beginning, when man first had to choose between hunting and sleeping, there was economics. Today economics is in everything we buy, use, and make, from the gas in our cars to the food on our tables, economics plays a vital role with the manufacture, distrubution and consumption of each. To help us better understand the economic trends, certain men have become economist. In this paper I will revisit four of the major economists’ theories. Starting with the theories of Adam Smith, a philosopher well as an economist, to the modern (relatively) day theories of Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize awardee, we will chronologically review the theories of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and Milton Friedman.
...nments, corporations and public institutions for the common good. [Which]… required a broadly framed policy” (229).
Servant leadership is an approach that goes against most leadership styles because it has the lead being the servant to their followers. This style of leadership wants the leader to be focused on the needs of their followers, empower their followers, and help realize their full capabilities.
3). Through the service of others, servants as leaders create positive changes in the lives of others that lead those served to act more autonomously (Block, Blanchard, Wheatley & Autry, 2006). The goal of a service leader is to help others achieve their highest level of functioning. Those served are then motivated to become service leaders as well (Block, Blanchard, Wheatley & Autry, 2006). Thus, servant leadership focuses on commitment to helping the individual served grow in their abilities. In turn this gives the served individual confidence in their work and personal abilities which then transforms into a desire to help others do the
Heilbroner, Robert L. The Worldly Philosophers: the Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. Print.
Servant Leadership, found in Chapter Ten of the text Leadership: Theory and Practice, is a paradoxical approach to leadership. It begins with the innate desire to serve first, and then lead through servant hood. Servant Leadership, originating in the early 1970s, is similar to the skills and styles approach, focusing on leadership from the leader’s viewpoint and his behavior under the leadership. Under this style of leadership, the leaders are considerate of the followers needs, empathizing with and having compassion for the followers. A servant leader feels a social responsibility to the less privileged and is concerned with inequality among the followers. Through servant leadership, a servant leader will attempt to correct these social injustices and by enabling and empowering the followers while helping the followers in developing valuable personal skills. Servant leaders are ethical, projecting strong moral behavior towards the followers, taking leadership paths that serve the greater good of an organization, the community and even society as a whole.
Before reading about characteristics of servant leadership, I tried thinking about what I already knew about this type of leadership. Some of the thoughts I had were: leaders put others before themselves and leaders go beyond their responsibilities to help others. When I read Chapter 7 from The Special Education Teacher as a Servant Leader, I found that I was correct but did not have the full answer.
Many leadership styles exist. The determining factor if a leadership style is effective or not is often how it is carried out and if it is appeasing to those, the leader is attempting to lead. One of the leadership styles that has become popular is Servant leadership. Although Greenleaf developed servant leadership more than thirty-five years ago and he identified ten characteristics that pertain to servant leadership. (book p. 56) Servant leadership has been successful in various industries and its popularity continues to increase.
Greenleaf “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.” Servant leaders put the needs of the employee first, they do not focus on themselves. A priority is put on meeting the needs of employees rather than one’s self. An example of such leadership in a hypothetical environment would be if a leader helped all team members first instead of himself. A servant leader would be a good listener, must be able to set a vison for employees and trust them. Although servant leadership is unorthodox as it’s difficult to use in an operation and apply in everyday situations. As Greenleaf (1977) stated “it is meant to be neither a scholarly treatise nor a how-to-do-it manual” (p.49). Servant leadership is very different from current views in organizations where often times they put the organizations profits before the individual. One can only hope this theory and model becomes more widely
The theory of economics does not furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to policy. It is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique for thinking, which helps the possessor to draw correct conclusions. The ideas of economists and politicians, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist." (John Maynard Keynes, the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money p 383)
Thomas, P.,(1959, December 19), Towards a General Theory of Industrial Relations, The Economic Weekly, p1729