American Socialists Should Drop the Illusions About Europe
For the past two decades, the continent has taken a decided turn toward freer markets.
Don’t give them too much credit – or blame.
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North AmericaIn the 1980s and 1990s, the U.S. and the U.K. took a turn toward free-market policies, cutting taxes, slashing welfare benefits, deregulating the financial industry, and adopting a pro-business stance on labor relations and mergers. Many in those countries now see this as a disastrous turn, and contrast this so-called neoliberal approach with the more robust social protections of many continental European countries. In this telling, the Anglo-American shift was an ideological choice, rather than a response to economic necessity.
But while ideology doubtless played a part, it’s probably not the whole story. Although continental European policy diverged from the Anglo-American model, it has also headed in a more neoliberal direction, especially after 1990. Although reformers in countries such as Germany, France and Sweden haven’t followed the examples of Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher, those countries have adopted their own more muted form of neoliberalism.