It appears that major governments are changing hands
and public policy directions in many places at the same
time.
Most notable perhaps is our own federal government,
following an historic national election in which Donald
Trump returns to the White House four years after he
was defeated for re-election in 2020.
But major governments, have suddenly changed, or are
about to change in all regions of the world, including
Germany, France, Syria, Canada and South Korea.
This follows recent earlier government changes in
Scandinavia, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Italy,
Poland, Argentina, Brazil and Japan.
In most, but not all, cases, the changes have been the
replacement of governments on the left with
governments on the right —- following the global
conservative tide of the past decade among democratic
nations. Many significant elections have seen voters
responding to center right.voter paries and leaders.
This does not prove that conservatives have all the
answers. The failure of some major center-right
governments, such as the Tory government of Great
Britain illustrates the growing voter realization htat
governing any large nation, especially ones with
diverse or non-homogeneous populations is becoming
harder and harder to do.
It does not seem that the problem is representative
democracy whether its form be a republic like the the
U.S., a constitutional monarchy, parliamentary
democratic state, or any ither democratic form which
enables its citizens to choose their leaders through
voting.
The main problem seems to originate in the various
current systems of delivering public services and
responding to public needs in an effective and timely
manner.
The current conservative trend has come primarily
from voter reaction the long-term failure of leftist
models which arbitrarily redistribute resources,
over-regulate enterprise and inhibit free markets
with resulting inflation, unemployment and
unstable economies.
The most notable example of a new approach is
now going on in Argentina, a nation with many
natural resources, but a long-term chaotic economy
due to Peronist oligarchial governments which always
fail to serve the Argentine public and its interests.
Under President Javier Milei, decades of destructive
public economic activity are being rapidly replaced with
libertarian conservative policies, and in a remarkably
short period of time, his “chainsaw” approach is
getting positive economic results, albeit with some
short-term hardships.
Incoming U.S. President-elect Trump has promised
his own “chainsaw” approach to the progressive
economic policies and centralized regulatory delivery
of public services, but so far, these are only promises.
Whether his policies will work remains to be seen.
Tax cuts without also lowering public expenditures
has not worked in the past. Creating more and more
public debt only ensures long-term instability.
So-called Keynesian economics, once a fashion, no
longer works.
As the new year of 2025 begins, more new changes
of government are likely to appear. No government
will be perfect, but the quest in democratic nations
for better government has not ever been more urgent.
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Copyright (c) 2024 by Barry Casselman. All rights reserved.
