It was October 29, 1929, that ushered in the great stock market collapse that in turn led to the great depression of the 1930s. The depression was probably the lowest point for market ideologues. There were times when it looked as if capitalism wouldn’t survive.
The growth of statism in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, and the rise of facism in Germany and elsewhere, challenged liberal democracy with its dependence on private markets.
Democratic socialism (including the election of Tommy Douglas and the Co-oeprative Commonwealth Federation, the first elected socialist government in North America, in 1944) also grew as the failures of markets were laid bare.
Of course, as we now know, market ideology began to assert itself during the second world war and kept growing. The growth of private markets were aided by liberal democratic parties – such as the Liberals in Canada and the Democrats in the United States – who campaign on socialist values but govern with a ruthless devotion to private markets.
The international neo-liberal agenda – called “globalization” – has been imposed on governments and economies around the world through economic and sometimes military force. But is the pendulum swinging away from market ideology and neo-liberalism.
Historian Eric Hobsbawm sees signs of the retreat of market ideology (though not as dramatic as the collapse of 1929). John Ralston Saul, in his 2005 book The Collapse of Globalism, is direct in his analysis.
One thing is certain. Human history is the story of change. Usually, that change is brought by an interplay of powerful forces. Sometimes, change bubbles up from people and human values.
Another thing is certain. Despite its elaborate mythology, market ideology has profoundly failed to meet basic human needs here in Canada, and around the world. Far from being the efficient distributor of resources claimed by its adherents, markets reward the powerful and punish the powerless.
- Michael Shapcott
