Post-Keynesian Theory, Direct Action and Political Involvement

Abstract

In this paper I analyse how I became an economist and at the same time a democratic socialist and a Christian. I also explained how I became politically involved after my graduate studies at Cambridge in the late 1950s and started lecturing at Adelaide. When back in Cambridge, teaching in the 1960s this time, the war in Vietnam persuaded me to support direct action through the anti-war movement in South Australia when I returned to Adelaide in 1967. The 1960s and the events of the time did influence my approach to teaching and research. More concretely, I was persuaded that ideology and analysis were indissolubly mixed and that one’s stance should always be made explicit. How this influenced what I did in my years in Adelaide, and then from 1982 back in Cambridge, along with my earlier experiences, are all described in the paper.

Keywords: political economy, political and religious beliefs, ideology and analysis direct action

JEL Classification: A0, A1, A2, B0, B2, B3