"If I Were Dictator"

1926 Clark, John Maurice (1884-1963). “If I Were Dictator.” In his Social Control of Business (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1926), 461-73. The 2^nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1939), 520-25 is completely different and has the title as “If I Were Dictator”. PSt

Essay proposing the establishment of industrial councils in each industry composed of employers, workers, consumers, and others with related interests. They would operate under the principles laid out in “An Economic Constitution for the State” (170-89), which proposes limited economic regulation. The councils would take over some of the regulatory functions of the state. This chapter in the second edition published during the Depression and New Deal is vague and general with no specific proposals and a call for more research, and in the “Preface to the Second Edition,” the author says that the chapter, “picturing an imaginary democratic dictator, came close to being abandoned, but a brief fresh treatment was finally retained, with mention of such matter from the earlier version as might still be pertinent” (ix). The author was Professor of Political Economy at the University of Chicago at the time of the first edition and Professor of Economics at Columbia University at the time of the second edition.