New Left Review I/214, November-December 1995

Robert Pollin

Financial Structures and Egalitarian Economic Policy

I. Introduction

In various incarnations, egalitarianism has been a fundamental concern of economic policy for most of the twentieth century. [1] The egalitarian impulse—and its corollary, opposition to the stark inequalities of free market capitalism—was embodied in both Soviet-style socialism and social-democratic Keynesianism as they developed, primarily in the first quarter-century after the end of World War II. Both models achieved major successes in a range of countries, especially through the 1960s. Countries with Soviet-type economies attained high growth rates and the majority of people living in them enjoyed rising living standards, including income, job, health and housing security. The social-democratic/Keynesian approach also succeeded in reducing inequality, increasing security, as well as contributing to the dampening of the capitalist business cycle. [2]

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