The economic thought of John Kenneth Galbraith

John Kenneth Galbraith has come into prominence with his ideas criticizing mainstream economic thought and adopted an interdisciplinary approach long before the age of interdisciplinary studies. Galbraith, shown as one of the representatives of American Instutional economic thought today, has expressed his opinions in accordance with historical and institutional facts because Galbraith has considered economics as a science interested in changing and developing socities.This study concentrates on economic thought of John Kenneth Galbraith and its foundations. In this study, his relationships with Institutional Economics, which has the most influence on Galbraith?s ideas, Keynesian Economics, Post Keynesian Economics and contemporary Marxians are investigated.Galbraith?s major economic thoughts have been formed in his three important books, American Capitalism and the Concept of Countervailing Power, The Affluent Society and The New Industrial State. Galbraith, especially, has analyzed the economic transformations that American society, entering into rapid industrialization process after the Second World War, has lived. There are issues in the core of these analyses of Galbraith like the affluence accumulating in America after the Second World War, giant corporations, managerial group of giant corporations named technostructure, consumer and firm behaviours. Consequently, Galbraith?s theories follow an emerging progress step by step.The aim of this study is to examine his original thoughts and evaluate his place in the tradition of economic thought.