Economic systems: constraints and driving forces of change

“Das Neue ist die gut vergessene Alte” – the new is mostly nothing more than the well-forgotten old, says the German proverb. Indeed, economics of the post-World War 2 period tended to be ahistoric, not caring even about its own traditions and venerated history. It all started with the breakthrough of formalism in the 1950s and 1960s. Already four decades ago, Axel Leijonhufvud (1973), one of the major figures reviving and interpreting Keynesianism, joked about true economists being the only tribe where not even high priests cultivate the myth of their own past glory. In the past quarter of a century, this situation has only been aggravated by the deep disrespect for history, contextuality and applications. As the intro to a recent special issue of the Cambridge Journal of Economics rightly observed (Freeman et al., 2014) – and other contributors only expanded – the mainstream of the profession has been carried away by Samuelson’s perceptions about the proper conduct of economic science.