The Underlying Theory of Modern Orthodox Neoclassical Economics: Observation about Walras - Part 6

It is notable that Walras himself did not take his theory to be an accurate representation of a real-world market economy like capitalism – although he did think, as pointed out by Vivian Walsh and Harvey Gram, that ‘if “land-services” were not privately owned, and if monopoly were eliminated’ in ‘real life’, then the ‘dynamic and uncertain’ nature of ‘real life’ would come as practically as possible to approximating the ‘timeless, perfect-knowledge, governed, competitive equilibrium of his’ theoretical ‘model’ of a market economy (1980:. 154). Thus, in this light, as pointed out by Anwar Shaikh, Walras viewed his own model of a general equilibrium market economy as providing ‘a means’ by which to understand what ‘“forces’” hinders a market economy like capitalism from reaching a general equilibrium state in which its ‘given resources’ can be most efficiently allocated in order to meet consumers’ demand (2016: 342-3).