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Title: Politics/Liberalism - The Demonisation of Market Liberalism Speech by Samuel Brittan to the EU Seminar on Europe in 21st Century (April 14 2000). Brittan is a leading economic commentator and Financial Times columnist.
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Speech - The Demonisation of Market Liberalism: Contribution to EU Seminar on Europe in 21st Century April 14 2000
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The demonisation of market liberalism
Samuel Brittan: Contribution to EU Seminar on Europe in 21st Century, Florence, April 14 2000
Scenario Danger
There is a danger in the scenario approach when it comes to
beliefs and values. Scenarios were originally invented by
large corporations to examine alternative economic
developments without confining themselves to single point
forecasts. They may have some value for this purpose. But when
the technique is applied to alternative views of how western
societies should be organised it lends itself to caricature.
Looking at the summaries of the five scenarios, we are
obviously meant to recoil from "Triumphant Markets" (as we are
from "turbulent neighbourhoods"). There is a little bit of
sympathy for the "hundred flowers" and for "creative
societies". But the favoured model is clearly the one entitled
Shared Responsibilities. This bears some resemblance to Third
Way pamphlets, the propaganda for stakeholder companies and
for managerial jargon such as "win-win".
Let me concentrate on market liberalism of which I am an
unapologetic exponent. Why call it "triumphant markets"? To
give the impression that there is some form of dominating
imperialism which snuffs out all non-commercial
considerations.
The first piece of propaganda is to equate it with the
unchallenged leadership of the American enterprise model.
There are many ways of organising enterprises; and there are
many kinds of values which they can reflect. Moreover history
suggests that the technological lead does not stay
indefinitely with one country but passes from one part of the
world to another. The American model - whatever that is - will
only be triumphant indefinitely if Europe fails to get its own
act in order.
Still in the first part of the summary: shareholder value
is given as if it were a highly contentious and anti-social
notion. In fact it only means that the owners of an enterprise
should try to get the best possible return on their
investments. In whose interest is it that they should do
anything else?.
It is the job of the governments and legislators to
formulate a framework of laws and regulations aimed to bring
social and commercial returns as far into line as possible.
But before we push these correctives to an absurd extent, let
us remember that there is also something called government
failure, resulting either from lack of knowledge or the
domination of the political process by interest groups.
The demonisation of market liberalism continues in the next
summary paragraph where it is associated with materialism and
consumerism and a "war on idleness". The most materialist
societies are the wrecks of the former Communist parts of
Europe, where economic performance is still so poor and
poverty so great that it is natural for people to want to
seize all they can. A properly functioning market supplies
whatever it is that its citizens want - including leisure and
cultural goods - if that is what they desire.
Redistributive Market Liberalism - RML
Of course there are some American Republicans and Big
Business types who live up to the Commission caricature. But
the core ultraliberal belief, as far as I am concerned, has
nothing to do with Wall St.. fashions or the US Republican
Party. It is in John Stuart Mills statement in On Liberty:
The sole end for which mankind are warranted,
individually or collectively, in interfering with the
liberty of action of any of their number is self
protection... His own good, either physical or moral, is
not a sufficient warrant.
The principle is often called negative freedom in political
philosophy and non-paternalism in economics. Specific economic
systems, such as competitive market capitalism, are merely
means for extending such choices as far as possible.
There is, of course, nothing inherently right about the
pattern of rewards produced by the combination of inheritance
and the market. But the way to introduce correctives is not to
impose vague "stakeholder" responsibilities on business or to
preach against self-interest. It is to devise a framework of
rules - including, if necessary, redistributive taxation and
transfers - by which a market economy can be induced to serve
broader objectives. This version of classical beliefs is
sometimes called in Britain Redistributive Market Liberalism
or RML. Until somebody comes out with something more
scintillating, I propose to use the term to describe my own
beliefs.
It is necessary to spell out that sensible redistribution
may involve a minimum income, but it does not mean minimum
wages or any other kind of interference with competitive wage
and price setting. The main result of such intervention is to
price people out of work, as has occurred to a large extent on
the continent of Europe. We should seek instead changes in the
rules of the game - for instance in property and inheritance
laws.
One advantage of a prosperous economy is that it can
afford to provide an adequate safety net. But it is
counter-productive to push redistribution to a point where it
reduces economic performance so much that the beneficiaries
fail to gain, or even lose. Beyond a certain point, which has
probably been reached in much of Europe, the combined effect
of taxes and benefits is to reduce hours worked and also the
proportion of the population seeking employment at any given
real wage.
Three sources of income
Professor James Meade, the Nobel prize-winning British
economist who died in 1995, envisaged a situation in which a
typical citizen would have three sources of income: first, a
wage or salary; secondly a basic income payment "from the
state"; and, thirdly, some income from capital ownership, over
and above the family home. Marx made quite the wrong criticism
of private ownership of capital. The only thing wrong with
investment or unearned income is that not enough of us have it.
I know no magic way of bringing the third element about. It
is a matter of looking for whatever opportunities come our way
to encourage dispersed ownership. We missed a chance when
privatisation shares were sold on the capital market rather
than being handed over to all citizens on a pro-rata basis. We
may have something to learn from the experience of the former
Communist countries, some of which have issued very cheap
vouchers to be used to purchase assets in state enterprises.
In Russia it seems that many of these vouchers have been
bought up at bargain prices by Mafia operators, but this may
not be true nearly to the same extent in the Czech Republic or
Poland. Another example has been in Alaska where state oil
revenues have been distributed as credits to all citizens.
Some More Distortions
To come back to the Commission summary: it is beyond
caricature. We are told for instance that market liberalism
involves "law and order" politics. I hope we all believe in
law and order. But the labeling is meant to suggest unduly
harsh punishments, zero toleration for misdemeanours and a
weakening of the processes which have evolved to protect
people against unjustified prosecution and conviction.
Must I go on? The individualisation of industrial relations
is meant to horrify us. But should it, if contracts of
employment are tailored to individual abilities and
requirements in a world where there is a demand for talent of
all kinds? As for the privatisation of the social services,
this is another bogeyman.
It is not who provides health or education that matters but
the adequacy of the service. The state does have a role in
enabling people of all incomes to enjoy such services. But do
they have to be provided by government, whether national or
local.
Just as market liberalism is demonised, the rather muddled
Third Way approach is put on a pedestal. We learn of policies
to "reorientate technologies towards the user". There is such
a policy and it is known as the free market. The Third Way is
supposed to be associated with "widespread tolerance of
diversity". It is precisely because it enables people to make
different choices about how and where to live and where and
how to work that I have always favoured free markets. The
political route means the domination of one group by another:
in practice domination by concentrated interest groups. And
heaven help us from "an important minority of active citizens
conditioning political and community life." How about those of
us who prefer to cultivate our own garden?
Conclusion
The hard collectivism of Communism has disintegrated, so
has the vision of a planned democratic socialist society. But
we are still threatened by softer and more seductive forms of
collectivism. These have in common with their predecessors the
delusion that the group is more important than the individuals
of which it is composed. On the right this is seen in an
outmoded devotion to the nation state and a hostility to the
European Union which is always in danger of degenerating into
a shrill chauvinism. On the left it embodies worship of an
ill-defined "community" which, in practice, becomes a
pervasive bossiness in matters ranging from intolerance of
smoking to attempts to impose educational requirements by
central government.
The dividing lines today are at least as much on the
freedom versus authoritarian dimension as on the traditional
one of left versus right.
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Speech | by | Samuel | Brittan | to | the | EU | Seminar | on | Europe | in | 21st | Century | (April | 14 | 2000). | Brittan | is | a | leading | economic | commentator | and | Financial | Times | columnist. |
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