The publication of the Marshall Lectures is part of the current upswing of interest in what is happening at the boundaries between the economy and society as well as between economics and sociology. Parsons welcomed the opportunity to give the Marshall Lectures because he wanted to apply his system of action to other areas within the social sciences. Parsons’argument in the lectures, however, was too general and his interpretation of Keynes was incomplete.Economy and Sociey(Parsons and Smelser 1956) represents in these and a few other aspects a clear advance in Parsons’think