Democracy and the Fall of the West by Craig Smith & Tom Miers

Author:Craig Smith & Tom Miers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Democracy, the West, society, western, politics, community, political mandate, government, governing, govern, liberalism, liberty, freedom, power, the state, philosophy, morality, public policy, rule of law, market liberalism
ISBN: 9781845404208
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

5: The Return of Market Liberalism

In September 2002, the British Labour Prime Minster Tony Blair made a remarkable confession in a pamphlet written for the Fabian Society:

Our public services, despite the heroic efforts of dedicated public servants and some outstanding successes, are not all of the quality a nation like Britain needs (2002, p. 1).

He went on to identify the problem and suggest market competition as a solution:

Choice is crucial both to individual empowerment and - by enabling the consumer to move to an alternative provider where dissatisfied - to quality of service ( Ibid., p. 20).

This extraordinary epiphany - coming from the leader of a political movement that was the prime driver of democratic socialism in Britain throughout the twentieth century - was the culmination of a big shift in the orientation of British politics. In essence the main socialist party seemed to be accepting that direct government intervention in the economy had failed, even in the provision of social welfare. For many, the conversion of ‘New Labour’ (as Blair had renamed his party) to market orthodoxy marked the final triumph in the resurgence of liberalism in Britain, at least in economic terms.

Yet not all welcomed this apparent new consensus. And in fact on closer inspection this liberal counter-revolution is proving to be ephemeral. This chapter explains how the liberal reforms that took place most noticeably in Britain and America after the end of the 1970’s are part of the democratic political cycle.

Just as the level of taxation rises and falls within a band just under the 50% mark, so the level of intervention in the economy will fluctuate in response to voter reaction to economic and social developments. But the motor of democracy ensures that, over the longer term, government domination of key social and economic institutions remains. Typically, analysis of political trends in Britain and the US takes place in isolation (or in Britain externally with reference only to the US), so commentators often miss developments elsewhere in the democratic world that should help to reveal that the return of market liberalism is part of a repetitive cycle rather than a linear progression.

Blair’s epiphany marked the formal conversion of Labour to market reform of the welfare state, yet he and his party were simply following a train of intellectual thought and political logic that had been set in motion decades before.

The crucial political events in both Britain and the US were the conversion of the main conservative parties to liberal market economics. This took place under a dual influence. Firstly, the performance of the ‘commercial’ economy (away from the welfare state) in both countries declined in relative terms in the post war period, as specific problems such as inflation, labour relations, unemployment and poor industrial management became increasingly prevalent. Secondly, a new intellectual movement developed that, while its foremost philosophers were academics, and some of its adherents politicians, found a neutral outlet in new ‘think tanks’. In Britain, the Institute of Economic Affairs (founded 1955) and the

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