John Stuart Mill’s Wages Fund Recantation: A Lakatosian Analysis

There has been a number of attempts to interpret John Stuart Mill’s recantation from the Wages Fund doctrine in 1869. This article attempts to analyze the recantation using a framework which takes account of the development and decline of the wages fund doctrine as a whole. The framework is based on the work of Imre Lakatos and the article aims to rationally reconstruct the history of Mill’s recantation. It is argued that while external events were responsible for focusing attention on trades union matters in the 1860s Mill’s recantation and the aftermath can be accounted for in terms of theoretical weaknesses with the doctrine and its failure to make theoretical progress.