18/02/2006 5:14:20 am
What If...? Everyone now know about the great economic success of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Some like it and think it should inspire reform i Western Europe, some dislike it and try to shut it out - but everyone acknowledge that it is a fact. And as usual, we tend to assume that the situation couldn?t have developed in another way.

But of course it could. I recently read statements from politicians around 1989, when these countries were liberated from communism and the centrally planned economy collapsed. There were worries for enormous problems and a general belief was that they would be dependent on foreign aid for decades in order to make it. Instead, they did radical market-oriented reform that reduced the size of the state and introduced free enterprise. And now they grow rapidly from their own strength.

But what would have happened if they hade introduced the Western European Model, the welfare state? Would we have had tiger economies around the Baltic sea? Of course not. In Western Europe, this model creates problems, and it would have done so there too. A relief for some who are more interested in preserving a model than improving society, perhaps. But truly, Europe would not have had dynamic countries that compete and inspire others to improvement.