Power, income inequality and economic growth

Power is an issue that has long drawn the attention of Professor Amit Bhaduri. However, the concept has proved elusive to define in general terms, and mainstream economics, with a few exceptions, has neglected it. This chapter defines power in a manner that incorporates both relational and structural concepts to analyze the issue of income distribution between capitalists and workers in an economy modeled along post-Keynesian-Kaleckian lines in which the sites of power include both markets and the state. The model can be used to understand cyclical shifts in power, more egalitarian distributions and crises.