Madam, - Deirdre de Burca (December 29th) presents a very misleading interpretation of "neo-liberalism".
She presents management of the socio-economic system as a choice between state control and "rampant individualism". Although she invests few words in describing it, it seems that the state control option will solve all our social problems, through such notions as "universal entitlements".
As a liberal, I have to say to Ms de Burca that she misses the fundamental reason why liberals abjure central state control: because this option is predicated on a falsehood, viz., that government is wise enough, informed enough and impartial enough to exercise the power and influence vested in it for the good of the people. This is manifestly not the case.
The reality is that governments' ability to understand and control the socio-economic system is extremely limited.
Let us take a concrete example of direct relevance to Ms de Burca's comments on the draft EU constitution. Gerhard Schroeder, a socialist, was elected Chancellor of Germany in 1998. From day one, his top priority was unemployment, which he pledged to reduce.
Today, nearly six years later, unemployment in Germany is, to the Chancellor's enormous political embarrassment, considerably higher than in 1998.
Now, if governments in general, and the German government in particular, knew how to control economies, presumably Schroeder would have used that knowledge to get himself and his party off their self-imposed hook. The fact that he hasn't can only be understood in one way: he can't.
Schroeder's (and his advisers') ability to control the system is so inadequate that he has been unable to deliver on his major electoral promise. Of course, this is not a characteristic only of the German government; it is true of all governments.
The point is that the image presented by people such as Deirdre de Burca, whereby omniscient, prudent governments take control of the socio-economic system and steer it for the good of the community, is simply an illusion, a mirage.
No such government exists or has ever existed. It is simply spin by politicians seeking to justify their existence and to maximise the power, privilege, authority and patronage at their command.
Politicians of the left, such are Ms de Burca, are like 17th-century quack doctors. They boast to the world of their great powers of healing, reciting their practised mantras and showing off the wonderful tools of their trade. They bleed their patients and lop off limbs with gay abandon. In the end, though, their understanding of the patient's problems and their ability to cure the unfortunate are little short of feeble. Any correlation between treatment and recovery are largely accidental.
Of course, if the poor benighted sufferer recovers, the charlatan takes all the credit; if not, it's all the patient's fault.- Yours, etc.,
Dr NORMAN STEWART,
Seapark,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.