Madam, - Fintan Clancy's intemperate letter of December 20th attempts to lump together "Iran's theocracy, green politics and plain old fascism and communism" in an attempt to discredit my arguments about the neo-liberal economic agenda and the draft EU constitution.
The original 18th-century concept of economic liberalism upheld the virtues of free markets, free enterprise and private property, and was tempered over time by the philosophy of political liberalism which also promoted "positive" freedoms and social rights.
The "neo-liberal" economic agenda, on the other hand, surfaced just over 20 years ago with the emergence of Thatcherism and Reaganomics. It represents a revival of economic liberalism but in a much more radical and virulent form. Put crudely, its slogan would be "markets good, state bad".
Neo-liberals argue that when markets are "free" from meddling by the state, this is good for business, for the economy and for the public. Neo-liberal policies therefore aim to "liberate" markets by removing controls on trade, corporate investment and international finance.
At the same time they aim to roll back the state, restricting its ability to stimulate the economy, while demanding reduced taxation, deregulation, privatisation and cuts in expenditure on public services such as health, education and social welfare. The role of the state under the neo-liberal economic model is minimal and its most important function is understood to be the promotion of corporate welfare and the provision of optimal conditions for business to thrive.
The provision of essential public services is then assumed by private enterprise on a commercial, fee-paying basis. The profit motive determines what services are delivered and how. Citizens are transformed into consumers, and what were fundamental, universal entitlements become commercial services available according to one's ability to pay. This leads inexorably to conditions of private wealth and public squalor, so evident within the US, which is a champion of economic neo-liberalism.The values of rampant individualism underpinning the neo-liberal economic model hold that "I am not responsible for my neighbour".
Advocates of neo-liberal economics portray this model as the "natural order of things", if the state could be got out of the way. In fact, it is simply another economic ideology, no less than the left-wing, "pinko" ideologies derided by neo-liberal enthusiasts such as Charlie McCreevy, and no doubt it will be replaced by another paradigm as its devastating social consequences become obvious.
In the meantime, however, the rapid pace of neo-liberal economic globalisation currently being promoted by powerful international bodies such as the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF are profoundly undermining the economies and societies of states across the world.
It is extremely disappointing, therefore, to see the EU increasingly promoting this agenda within successive European treaties.
The EU is often described by its advocates as a bulwark against the worst excesses of neo-liberal economic globalisation. But the Common Commercial Policy as set out in Part III of the draft constitutional treaty demonstrates that, despite its much-vaunted commitment to a European social model, the EU has simultaneously embraced this socially destructive economic model which is inimical to the values of a genuinely social Europe. - Yours, etc.,
Cllr DEIRDRE DE BURCA, (Green Party), Eglinton Road, Bray,
Co Wicklow.