Suchergebnisse

United Kingdom's Economy and Mrs. Thatcher's Policy, by Peter M. Oppenheimer
For over twenty-five years, the United Kingdom has been struggling with economic difficulties and with a lower growth than its partners. As a result the country is now the poorest among the North Western European countries (with the exception of Ireland). To be sure, the United Kingdom is not alone to be ailing and most of the industrialised countries suffer from the conjunction of inflation and unemployment, as well as from the slowing down of gains of productivity. But because the crisis they have to face is deeper and enduring, British leaders are often inclined to choose radical solutions. Previous labour governments have been indulging in an excess of Keynesianism; today, in order to cure the "British disease", Mrs. Thatcher relies on the virtues of monetarism, on the reduction of the state's role and on supply-side economics. But this drastic therapy which was started in May of 1979 has obviously worsened recession without yielding any tangible results in the of inflation, at least until the beginning of 1981. This failure is partly due to the contradictory aspects of the policy effectively implemented by Mrs. Thatcher. If the economic indicators (particularly inflation) now seem to show signs of improvement, the state of the British economy remains nevertheless critical while the use made of the profits drawn from oil production in the North Sea remains controversial.

The problem of inflation has been a major preoccupation of Western governments in the 1970s. Has it affected their foreign policy? More particularly, has U.K. foreign policy been affected by the much faster than average rate of inflation prevalent in Britain?When a number of economic and political problems co-exist, it is tempting to discern linkages between them and even, perhaps, to see these linkages as inevitable. Such diagnoses are sometimes correct; but as a rule they cannot be relied upon. This is true even when attention is confined to economic issues alone. The connection, for instance, between global inflation and the energy problem in the 1970s is complex and subtle, but not close.

The social contract in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia has concerned not classical political rights but socio-economic issues. Loyalty is accorded to the powers-that-be partly from fear of repression, but also in return for new opportunities of advancement - whether resulting from social upheaval or from educational expansion - and for modest improvements in living standards. The Soviet era ended when such benefits could no longer be delivered, on account of lower oil prices, arms-race burdens and lagging productivity and innovation. After the turmoil of the 1990s, the contract was re-established under Putin in the early 2000s. Public opinion accepts relatively authoritarian rule if economic stability appears guaranteed in return. Moreover, world events from 2008 onwards have dampened economic expectations. Nonetheless, the sustainability of the present contract is doubtful, with economic modernization likely to prove elusive in the absence of effective democratic institutions. (International Affairs (Oxford) / SWP)