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169

Journal of Mar kets & M orality1, no. 2(October 1998), 169-191

Copyright 1998 Center for Economic Personalism

The Death of Socialism?

In recent years, the world has witnessed the most surprising events since

World War II. Almost overnight, the Berlin wall came down, Communist

control of the Soviet Union and all of eastern Europe virtually disappeared,

and a very determined man, friendly to the West, religion, and the free

market, was elected president of the newly reconstituted Russia, resisted

twocoups detat, and instituted free-market reforms. Even in mainland China,still officially Communist, economic reforms have been tolerated, moving

at least certain segments of the nation toward freedom. It is a sign of the

times that the two largest fast-food chains in the world now maintain fran-

chises in Beijing and Moscow. Certainly, to any person who has seen how

the varieties of socialism have ravaged the economies and freedoms of mil-

lions of people, and have produced the nuclear-shrouded nightmare of the

Cold War, these events come as a great blessing and relief.

The West was on the march to greater economic freedom even before

these momentous events took place. The reforms in England under Prime

Minister Margaret Thatcher, and in the United States under the presidency

of Ronald Reagan, have brought about the most prosperous times in re-

cent memory to both nations.

One might be led to think, as many have, that the time of statism is

over; that the economic and political liberties that make the West, and

especially the United States, so prosperous would be accepted by every-

one as the standard with, of course, whichever modifications have to be

made to adapt them to the local conditions and traditions of each nation.

The Economics of Bertrand de Jouvenel

Wil li am R. Luckey

Associate Professor of Poli ti cal Science and Economi cs

Chr istendom College

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