John Kenneth Galbraith

Galbraith, John Kenneth 

Born Oct. 15, 1908, in Ontario, Canada. American economist, doctor of philosophy (1934).

Galbraith graduated from the University of Toronto in 1931. He taught in a number of American universities from 1931 to 1942. From 1943 to 1948 he was an editor of Fortune magazine. He became a professor at Harvard University in 1949.

Galbraith has written many works on various aspects of contemporary capitalism. He is a supporter of state intervention in the economy. He advanced the theory of “countervailing forces,” with the state supposedly assisting in the creation of a balance between supply and demand by means of the regulation of monopolies’ activities. Striving to refute the Marxist theory of accumulation and impoverishment, Galbraith attempts to demonstrate the social regeneration of capitalism, which is supposedly transforming itself as a result of technological development into a new society of abundance, the “industrial state.” Galbraith has supported the theory of convergence of the capitalist and socialist systems. He is a supporter of peaceful coexistence of the two systems and was an opponent of the war in Vietnam. Since 1967, he has headed the Americans for Democratic Action.

WORKS

American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power. Boston, 1952.
The Affluent Society. Cambridge, 1958. Second edition: Har-monds worth, 1968.
Economic Development. Cambridge, 1963.
The New Industrial State. Boston, 1967. In Russian translation, Novoe industrial’noe obshchestvo. Moscow, 1969.

REFERENCES

Kozlova, K. “ ‘Novoe industrial’noe obshchestvo’ Dzhona Gelbreita.” Mirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia, 1968, no. 1.

V. G. SARYCHEV