Émile Pierre Marie James

Born July 18, 1899, in Riom. French bourgeois economist.

James became a professor in the faculty of law and economic sciences at the University of Paris in 1938. He is an adherent of Keynesianism, which in France in the 1950’s took on a realist tendency, or dirigisme. He favors greater government intervention in the economy, holding that only in this way can an economic equilibrium be achieved under capitalism. James devotes much of his attention to the history of modern economic thought. However, his study of its development is characterized by an idealist approach that does not consider class relations.