The Economic Causes of War and Changes in Post-War Economic Thought: From Keynes to Beneš

• Authors: Tomáš Nikodym
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper deals with various economic interpretations of World War I which are often followed by changes in economic theory. It is shown, that most prevailing interpretations are still influenced by Karl Marx and his theories. Then, the sequential shift in economic or social policy and thinking is inevitably influenced by Marxism too. Authors writing in this tradition summarized that the capitalism leads to the monopolist structure of the economy and to the imperialism in economic policy. The war is then result of the struggle for foreign markets and resources. Using the economic theory and clarifying basic definition (for example competition, capitalism, socialism) the paper shows that it is not the "invisible hand" of capitalism what is a cause of war, but the "visible hand" of the state.

Keywords

EN

World War One; capitalism; imperialism; socialism

Discipline

• ECONOMICS: ECONOMICS
• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Silesian University in Opava, Faculty of Public Policies, Czech Republic
• Journal: Central European Papers
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 79-94

Contributors

author

Tomáš Nikodym

• Katedra hospodářských dějin, Národohospodářská fakulta, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, nám. Winstona Churchilla 4, 130 67 Praha, Czech Republic