8/7/2019 mm-v1n2-luckey The Economics of B Jouvenel
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169
Journal of Markets & Morality 1, no. 2(October 1998),
169-191
Copyright 1998 Center for Econo mic Personalism
The Death of Socialism?
In recent years, the world h as witnessed the most surprising
events since
World War II. Almost overnight, the Berlin wall came down,
Communist
contro l of the Soviet Union and all of eastern Europ e
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
two coups detat, and in stituted free-market reforms. Even in m
ainland 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 th e two largest fast-food chains in the world n ow
main tain fran-
chises in Beijing and Moscow. Certainly, to any person who has
seen how
the varieties of socialism have ravaged the econ om ies and
freedom s of mil-
lions of people, and have produced the n uclear-shrou ded n
ightmare of the
Cold War, these event s come as a great blessing and relief.
The West was on the march to greater economic freedom even
before
these mom entou s events took place. The reforms in England un
der 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 mod ifications h
ave to be
made to adap t them to th e local cond itions and tradition s of
each nation .
The Econo mics o f Bertrand de Jouvenel
W illiam R. Luckey
Associate Professor of Political Science and Economics
Christendom College
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