ECON2951 - Autumn 2017

Exercises for seminar 6

Hi everyone,

In this seminar we'll continue the discussions on social pacts and the role it played in the 1930s:

1. What is a social pact?

2. What was the main content in the social pacts that several North European countries entered into in the 1930s?

3. In the US what was called the 'New Deal' can be considered a social pact. How can we describe it?

4. Why did not all countries enter into social pacts?

5. To what extent can we say that social pacts changed the historical Developments?

6. What is the role of Keynes and Keynsianism for the implementation of social pacts?

In addition to these questions from the previous seminars, we'll start discussing the following questions:

1) Give a brief overview of the expansion of the welfare state

2) When democratic voting rights were introduced one hundred years ago, many observers feared that it would lead to a comprehensive redistribution from the rich to the poor. To what extent do you believe it did, or did not, happen? And what could be the explanation?

3a) What is the essence of Keynes' economic ideas for understanding unemployment and crisis?

3b) To what extent were his ideas implemented during the crisis in 1930s?

4a) How would you describe Joseph Schumpeter's economic theories in comparison with those of John Maynard Keynes?

4b) According to Schumpeter, what would be good policies to get out of the crisis?

If we don't get through all of these questions, we'll continue on them next week.