wrong about the infallibility of the 'free'
market?
Thatcher and Reagan: Pushed Globalization and Mistaken Deregulation (Le Monde,
France)
"Thatcher and Reagan deified the market. Because, according to
them, it would have the benefit of never derailing since - miracle - it
regulates itself! ... And the left would pursue them. ... Better still, at the
beginning of the 21st century, the monumental crash triggered by this
'deification' of the market - as it turns out, it isn't always self-regulating
- fails to benefit the social-democratic left. This was a posthumous victory
for Margaret Thatcher."
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is applauded by Vice President George H.W. Bush, left, as House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill looks, at a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Feb. 20, 1985.
She marked her time.
Some rejoice, some regret, but one finds few observers of the 1980s who would
deny they were "Maggie's years."
British Prime Minister
from 1979 to 1990 - three terms - Margaret Thatcher left a deep imprint. The "Iron
Lady," the first woman to head a major Western country, not only restored
confidence to a Great Britain which was adrift. In certain ways, we still live
on the Thatcher legacy.
First- on the economic
front. She rose to power a few months before U.S. President Ronald Reagan
(1980-1988). He would be her ideological ally. The two would reinvent economic
liberalism. They have the same enemy: the welfare state, like those set up by
British Labour after World War II and outlined by U.S.
Democrats beginning in the 1960s.
We know their
indictment. The welfare state kills private initiative, slows wealth creation,
advocates an egalitarianism that discourages effort and merit, and keeps the
poor in a state of dependency. In short, it stifles the first force - the energetic
basis that is the market. Thatcher and Reagan deified the market. Because,
according to them, it would have the benefit of never derailing since - miracle
- it regulates itself!
In the Britain of the
late 1970s, the recipe was not without meaning. At the time, the country lived on
aid from the International Monetary Fund, and the all-powerful trade unions
often paralyzed its large public sector, which was nationalized after the war.
“Thatcherism” - privatization, implacable struggle against trade union
monopolies, deregulation, etc. - put punch back into the British economy. But
at the same time, it dismantled large portions of the public service, notably
education and health.
On this was grafted economic
globalization and an ever-greater opening of borders to all trade. Thatcher and
Reagan are not solely responsible for this, but they were its intellectual
agents.
And the left would pursue
them. Without knowing how to reinvent the welfare state, a “third way” would
emerge, under Tony Blair in London or Bill Clinton in Washington. But that was only
a civilized form of neoliberalism. Better still, at the beginning of the 21st century,
the monumental crash triggered by this “deification” of the market - as it
turns out, it isn't always self-regulating - fails to benefit the social-democratic
left. This was a posthumous victory for Margaret Thatcher.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
And that isn't her
only one. Alas! Europe also lives very largely in a reality of her design:
first and foremost, a free trade zone - definitively not a singular entity on
the international scene, but primarily an association of sovereign states. Certainly
not an ever-more united community as the founding texts of the European Union
call for.
No one marks their
time so strongly without great political talent. Charisma, charm, loyalty to
one's convictions, courage in one's choices, a sense of leadership: she was all
of that, undeniably.
