This paper will attempt to explain the basic theories of John Maynard Keynes. It will give a basic rundown of what Keynesian economics is and the surrounding effects of it. It will also give a critique of the theory known as supply side and attempt to show how it came to prominence. These two ideas are pertinent to the study of government and economy because it is these ideas that have guided this country's economic policy for the greater part of the former century. This paper is subjective in nature and any of the ideas may or may not have more validity than the other. The paper will, however try to show the validity of the Keynesian approach over the supply side doctrine. Keynesian economicsKeynes is perhaps one of the best known of all economists. This is hardly surprising for two main reasons. The first is that his work was perhaps the most important work in economic policy that had been done for decades and changed the whole face of post-war economic policy. The second, less important reason for his fame is that he is perhaps the only economist to have a whole branch of economics named after him. Keynes remains the only person to be honored in this way. His main contribution to the economics debate of the time was in putting together a coherent critique of the existing classical economic theory that dominated economic policy-making circles. Keynes' father was an economist and his mother was Mayor of Cambridge for some time. Keynes went to Eton (as a scholar) and then went on to King's College Cambridge to study Classics and Maths. He worked for a short time in the Civil Service but didn't like it much, and so left and went back to Cambridge as a Fellow. In 1911 he was made editor of the Economic Journal - Britain's foremost economics publication. He was a varied character - not at all the stereotypical economist of people's assumptions. He married a Russian ballerina and was for much of his time a member of the Bloomsbury G...
