Postwar reconstructionists rejected budget constraints as limits on social policy

Evidence

Aft er the war, many rejected the “old economic creed” in favor of “a progressive trinity”— expansionist fi scal and monetary policies and inclusive industrial agendas that outmuscled the impersonal laws of the market. In affi rming human agency, reconstructionists refused to bow to budgetary constraints as an “economic limit” to policies of social distribution. Th ese plans for a “new society” reached for high emancipatory goals— from the spread of communal living that empowered women to the funding of workers’ schools that taught about labor rights and socialist theory. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 332

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ‘progressive trinity’ of interwar reconstructionism and its stance that fiscal/monetary expansion can outpace market laws — the position austerity later defines itself against.
• XREF: connects to: Postwar reconstructionists reversed the priority of fiscal economy over political aims — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 181; Postwar British reconstructionists gave political goals priority over economic cost — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 181; Postwar political consensus held that cost could no longer excuse refusing social reform — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 250

Broader Connections

• Postwar reconstructionists reversed the priority of fiscal economy over political aims #corroborates (0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 181
• Postwar British reconstructionists gave political goals priority over economic cost #corroborates (0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 181
• Postwar political consensus held that cost could no longer excuse refusing social reform #corroborates (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 250