Socialism: The Threat Stili Remains

It is now nearly fifteen years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, closely followed by the liberation of Eastern Europe and the end of the Soviet Union. For the first time in many of our lives the world seemed safe for freedom, capitalism and the market. But even before these cataclysmic events, the world was moving in favour of the market, even though the word capitalism itself was still hardly mentionable in polite circles. Margaret Thatcher of Britain and Ronald Reagan of the United States, enthusiastically revived memories of the political economy of freedom which their respective countries had neglected or almost forgotten. Of course, Mrs Thatcher’s achievement was the greater for even in the darkest days of socialism America was still something of a beacon for freedom and the market. Only the intellectuals there really believed in socialism but in other countries the disease was widespread.