Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: the shifting boundaries of the state in modern Britain
- Part I The state and political theory
- 2 Political thought and the state
- 3 ‘Boundaries’ in theoretical language about the British State
- 4 The twilight of the British state?: Henry Dubb versus sceptred awe
- 5 Thinking about the state and the economy
- Part II The economy
- Part III Welfare and social policy
- Part IV Conflict and order
- Part V Religion and morality
- Index
5 - Thinking about the state and the economy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: the shifting boundaries of the state in modern Britain
- Part I The state and political theory
- 2 Political thought and the state
- 3 ‘Boundaries’ in theoretical language about the British State
- 4 The twilight of the British state?: Henry Dubb versus sceptred awe
- 5 Thinking about the state and the economy
- Part II The economy
- Part III Welfare and social policy
- Part IV Conflict and order
- Part V Religion and morality
- Index
Summary
The great fact, and puzzle, of the last twenty years has been the revival of belief in economic liberalism. By this I mean the belief that economic (and to some extent social) outcomes should be mainly determined by market forces, with its corollary of a contracted role for the state in economic life. This revival occurred after a century of creeping collectivism. A distinction must be made between political and economic liberalism. Western societies, with some backsliding, remained committed to political liberalism, but accepted increasing doses of economic collectivism. Indeed, the latter was widely regarded as a condition of the former. This linkage has now been upset. Political and economic freedom are increasingly seen as indivisible, with encroachments on economic liberty viewed as threatening to political liberty. I want to reflect on this shift in a historical, partly autobiographical, way; to contrast what we – my generation – believed then and what we partly believe now, and to give some explanation for our change of views.
The simplest explanation of the revolt against economic collectivism is that experience has shown it doesn't work. But in a sense this experience was always there: it was embodied in the dominant Anglo- Saxon – I hesitate to say western – tradition of political philosophy and political economy. It might be said that the twentieth-century experience of market failure and the costs of uncontrolled change crowded out the earlier suspicion of state control and cooled the ardour for letting market forces rip. And there is much truth in this.
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- The Boundaries of the State in Modern Britain , pp. 70 - 86Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996
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