Yes economic liberalism has brought wealth

The current crisis calls into question liberalism

MICHEL GUNAIRE. The Liberal experience over the last 20 years leads to a great crisis. We live in a disorganized world, deprived of any political control. Since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, liberalism was more contested by the alternative represented socialism radical to the East of Europe, more moderate West. Its values are imposed in policy with liberal democracy and its standards universal suffrage, the representative system and the guarantee of a Constitution and in the economy with the development of competition law and the financialisation of the life of the business.

GUY SORMAN. You have the art of the great portrait, as shown in your book. I am rather pointillist. The values of liberalism are imposed It is simply that liberal mechanics has been applied everywhere. The development economist that I was, it is fascinating to see that life is improved for hundreds of millions of men and women with the opening of the borders of their countries, the development of competition, monetary regulation, who played a key role in making disappear the inflation. A disordered world You dream perhaps of a world Government, but I am afraid that such a Government is despotic. The victory of liberalism is indeed perhaps very temperate. Of course, the world rallies to market since 1989. But, politically, the victory is not be acquired only half of the world lives in democracy.

Mr. g. Yes, economic liberalism has brought wealth. But the crisis destroyed many. Yes, liberalism brings freedom. But each nation has its temperament, its history, its traditions. There is no universal model of liberal democracy. Attempts to apply the same model everywhere could lead to an immense intellectual and moral crisis. Liberalism is rooted in a culture, a morality. He was born in England in the 17th century, and then in the United States and France in the 18th century, in human groups ready to assume their culture and their moral responsibility for freedom.

Is democracy the same everywhere in the world

G. S. The idea that the diversity of cultures is an obstacle to the spread of democracy is very French. Alain Peyrefitte explained already that the Chinese are not made for democracy. But, until the 19th century, Chinese cities elect their representatives. The India has local forms of democracy close to the Western model. The aspiration to freedom of expression, in the debate, to individual recognition exists everywhere.

Mr. g. I instead have the belief that we are going to the time of the regions of the world with economic and political organizations that will be clean, listed in their history. Of course, there are common features, such as the separation of powers or the representative system to choose or punish political leaders. But we must get out of the dream of universal principles invented on the peninsula of Asia that is Europe! The beginning of everything, it is culture, not freedom.

G. s. I have trouble distinguishing one from the other. And there is no liberal economic model, there is however an economic science. Turgot and Adam Smith were right: the economy that works, it is the market economy. We tried Maoism, self-management, the Stalinist system, planning to the French... who have all failed. Some seek alternatives. And it is not surprising, because we are here in a very imperfect world.

Will the State emerge strengthened from the crisis

MR. G. In recent years, the role of the State was sticky. Policies were also pleased themselves to leave the old nations body administered by the law of the market. They deregulated and privatized wish. Result: in the crisis, the State is struggling to find its marks, he was reluctant to make real choices of break. We need to find a balance between the State and the market.

G. S. In our countries, I believe that the weight of the State has not decreased. Reported GDP, public spending increased. The number of staff also. When we say that it is has had withdrawal of the State, it is at the margin, and the only claim of Brussels.

MR. G. The relative weight of the State is probably not decreased, but his role is emptied of meaning. The State was more present. He was an industrial policy. It launched major structuring investments, such as nuclear power. In the recent period, the State abandoned its true active functions and filled inefficient functions, particularly in the social field.

G. S. I am reluctant to the idea of industrial policy. We

The current crisis calls into question liberalism

MICHEL GUNAIRE. The Liberal experience over the last 20 years leads to a great crisis. We live in a disorganized world, deprived of any political control. Since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, liberalism was more contested by the alternative represented socialism radical to the East of Europe, more moderate West. Its values are imposed in policy with liberal democracy and its standards universal suffrage, the representative system and the guarantee of a Constitution and in the economy with the development of competition law and the financialisation of the life of the business.

GUY SORMAN. You have the art of the great portrait, as shown in your book. I am rather pointillist. The values of liberalism are imposed It is simply that liberal mechanics has been applied everywhere. The development economist that I was, it is fascinating to see that life is improved for hundreds of millions of men and women with the opening of the borders of their countries, the development of competition, monetary regulation, who played a key role in making disappear the inflation. A disordered world You dream perhaps of a world Government, but I am afraid that such a Government is despotic. The victory of liberalism is indeed perhaps very temperate. Of course, the world rallies to market since 1989. But, politically, the victory is not be acquired only half of the world lives in democracy.

Mr. g. Yes, economic liberalism has brought wealth. But the crisis destroyed many. Yes, liberalism brings freedom. But each nation has its temperament, its history, its traditions. There is no universal model of liberal democracy. Attempts to apply the same model everywhere could lead to an immense intellectual and moral crisis. Liberalism is rooted in a culture, a morality. He was born in England in the 17th century, and then in the United States and France in the 18th century, in human groups ready to assume their culture and their moral responsibility for freedom.

Is democracy the same everywhere in the world

G. S. The idea that the diversity of cultures is an obstacle to the spread of democracy is very French. Alain Peyrefitte explained already that the Chinese are not made for democracy. But, until the 19th century, Chinese cities elect their representatives. The India has local forms of democracy close to the Western model. The aspiration to freedom of expression, in the debate, to individual recognition exists everywhere.

Mr. g. I instead have the belief that we are going to the time of the regions of the world with economic and political organizations that will be clean, listed in their history. Of course, there are common features, such as the separation of powers or the representative system to choose or punish political leaders. But we must get out of the dream of universal principles invented on the peninsula of Asia that is Europe! The beginning of everything, it is culture, not freedom.

G. s. I have trouble distinguishing one from the other. And there is no liberal economic model, there is however an economic science. Turgot and Adam Smith were right: the economy that works, it is the market economy. We tried Maoism, self-management, the Stalinist system, planning to the French... who have all failed. Some seek alternatives. And it is not surprising, because we are here in a very imperfect world.

Will the State emerge strengthened from the crisis

MR. G. In recent years, the role of the State was sticky. Policies were also pleased themselves to leave the old nations body administered by the law of the market. They deregulated and privatized wish. Result: in the crisis, the State is struggling to find its marks, he was reluctant to make real choices of break. We need to find a balance between the State and the market.

G. S. In our countries, I believe that the weight of the State has not decreased. Reported GDP, public spending increased. The number of staff also. When we say that it is has had withdrawal of the State, it is at the margin, and the only claim of Brussels.

MR. G. The relative weight of the State is probably not decreased, but his role is emptied of meaning. The State was more present. He was an industrial policy. It launched major structuring investments, such as nuclear power. In the recent period, the State abandoned its true active functions and filled inefficient functions, particularly in the social field.

G. S. I am reluctant to the idea of industrial policy. We