Progress and Reform

This study re-examines the economic thought of JohnR. Commons (1862-1945). Commons was a leadingProgressive Era American economist based primarily at the Universityof Wisconsin. He was active in the La Follette administration inWisconsin and drafted that State's Civil Service law (which became thebasis of Federal law) created the Industrial Commission law and the PublicUtility Act -- the cornerstones of progressive era legislation. Inaddition he is commonly regarded as a founder of the American Institutionalschool of economic thought. Toward this end this work attemptsto first organize Commons' economic system into aworkable framework second reconcile Commons' valueconception with those of other founding authors inthe original institutional tradition and third toshow the linkages between Commons' thought and theresearch agenda of the newer institutional school.