"The great dialectic in our time is not, as anciently and by some still supposed, between capital and labor; it is between economic enterprise and the state"
About this Quote
Galbraith is picking a fight with the most comfortable storyline of industrial modernity: the idea that history’s engine is bosses versus workers. By reframing the “great dialectic” as enterprise versus the state, he shifts the drama from the shop floor to the regulatory arena, where power is quieter, more technical, and easier to launder as “policy.” The line works because it sounds like a correction of an old superstition (“as anciently... supposed”), a gentle slap at orthodox Marxists and laissez-faire nostalgists alike. He’s not denying conflict inside capitalism; he’s claiming the main battlefield has moved.
The subtext is Galbraith’s signature skepticism toward the romance of the free market. In his mid-century world of giant corporations, unions, and managerial technocracy, “capital” isn’t just an owner class and “labor” isn’t just an exploited mass; both are increasingly institutional, negotiated, and buffered. The real contest becomes: who sets the rules, who captures the rules, and who gets to call their preferences “economic necessity.” “Economic enterprise” here is a deliberately broad phrase, flattering to business self-image while still implying coordinated corporate power. “The state” is equally elastic: regulator, purchaser, planner, rescuer.
Context matters: post-Depression, postwar America, when government had already become a permanent economic actor and corporations had learned to treat politics as an extension of strategy. Galbraith is warning that the modern economy isn’t governed by pure market friction but by a running tug-of-war over legitimacy, constraint, and control. The quote’s edge is that it makes ideology look outdated and lobbying look like destiny.
The subtext is Galbraith’s signature skepticism toward the romance of the free market. In his mid-century world of giant corporations, unions, and managerial technocracy, “capital” isn’t just an owner class and “labor” isn’t just an exploited mass; both are increasingly institutional, negotiated, and buffered. The real contest becomes: who sets the rules, who captures the rules, and who gets to call their preferences “economic necessity.” “Economic enterprise” here is a deliberately broad phrase, flattering to business self-image while still implying coordinated corporate power. “The state” is equally elastic: regulator, purchaser, planner, rescuer.
Context matters: post-Depression, postwar America, when government had already become a permanent economic actor and corporations had learned to treat politics as an extension of strategy. Galbraith is warning that the modern economy isn’t governed by pure market friction but by a running tug-of-war over legitimacy, constraint, and control. The quote’s edge is that it makes ideology look outdated and lobbying look like destiny.
Quote Details
| Topic | Business |
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