GOVERNMENT

This graph explores the relationship between Cambridge economists and the many arms of the British Government. It also shows connections with interntional government organizations, namely the League of Nations, the United Nations and the International Labour Organization.

 

 

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[ How to Read this Graph ] [ How we use data ] [ The history behind the map ]

• HOW TO READ THIS GRAPH
  The British government, which is clustered in the center of this graph, was central to the careers of many of the economists working at Cambridge. Of those associated with government bodies, the greatest number was associated with the Board of Trade, but many also worked for the Treasury. Still others worked for the Bank of England and for various ministries, many associated with wartime planning, which is explored in the next graph. This graph also shows connections with international governmental organizations, notably the League of Nations and United Nations. A good many Cambridge economists were pacifists and many others, horrified by the carnage and destruction caused by the World Wars, were eager to support institutional advocates for peace.

• HOW WE USE DATA
  The government agencies and organizations are clustered around a single node representing the government of the United Kingdom. The intelligence services, both military and non-military, have been combined into a single representative node. Though this is not a comprehensive index of the many arms of government with which Cambridge economists were associated over the course of their lives, it does represent all or nearly all of the organizations from which more than one economist received employment.  This map is also not complete because the principal source of data for the edges is the information contained in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which does not purport to be an encyclopedic reference of past employment.

  Also featured here are two orange-colored nodes representing the United Nations and the League of Nations. Unlike the connections linking individuals to the other organizations featured on this map, the connections with the UN and the League are not purely professional. They instead include links of support between those who were ardent advocates of the international organizations and the organizations themselves. There is an overlap here with those who were pacifists and those who were particularly disgusted by their wartime experience. It is principally for this reason and the resultant ability to juxtapose these people with those who served in the armed forces that the two international bodies are included in this graph.

  This graph also includes the personal and institutional connections featured in the first one, "People and Institutions." It uses the same graphical parameters.

• THE HISTORY BEHIND THE MAP
  The relationship between the government and the professional economist was often fraught in early 20th century Britain. Many economists struggled to maintain their reputation for objectivity and detachment within academia, while others cut their teeth as civil servants. Wartime drafts, however, emptied out Cambridge and brought many into London to plan and administer the massive economic mobilizations. Both because of this experience during World War I as well as because of the growing public reputation of the discipline, academic economics became increasingly integrated with government policy, with prominent economists core members of government policy boards by the time of the Great Depression.