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60 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1945)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry60 and id is 1 raw text is: 



Volume  LX]


       POLITICAL SCIENCE


                QUARTERLY

      ECONOMIC CONTROLS AFTER THE WAR
GOVERNMENT control of economic activity has grown
         uninterruptedly since the Great Depression. The war
         has underlined this trend to such a degree that few
fields of business or consumption activity are left untouched by
government  control in some way. The  question arises, quite
naturally, Is this but a transitory development, caused by excep-
tional circumstances, or has extended government control of
economic activity come to stay?
  Many  people will answer this question in terms of their gen-
eral ideological attitudes in regard to free enterprise,
socialism, etc. Past experience, however, enables us to predict
that these ideological attitudes will exert a secondary r8le in
determining whether, and to what extent, government control
of economic activity is going to stay. The question will be de-
cided not by ideological preferences but by practical neces-
sities. In the decade which preceded the war and during the
present war, government control has grown not because of but
in spite of the preferences of public opinion. It has done so be-
cause, given the structure of our economy and the mode of
operation of our political system, it has become necessary to keep
the economy from  breaking down due to unemployment  and
subsequently to inflation, and the necessity of supplying the
goods essential to the prosecution of the war. Whether it will
continue after the war will depend on whether it will prove to
be necessary. The question must be answered in terms of the
problems which will confront our economy after the war.
  These problems may be classified as follows: (1) the mainte-
nance of full employment, (2) the control of monopoly, and


(1)


March   z9405


[ Number  z

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