On revolutions and crises in economic science

The paper studies the applicability of Thomas Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions to economics. We analyze three key “revolutions”: marginalist, Keynesian, and Lucasian (rational expectations), identifying their stages and characteristics. The focus is made on the asymmetry between crises (external and internal) and theoretical responses to them, as well as on the complex interactions among economic theory, policy, and ideology. The presented analysis suggests that Kuhn’s model is useful for describing periods of turbulence in economics, albeit with significant caveats.