Reluctant Collectivists Essay

The events of the 20th century, especially of its first part had brought a lot of things to think over in political and economical sphere. The global economical crisis of the 1930ies and the War time had proved there have to be changes made in the regulation of the political and social relationships as well as in the government policy. Time showed that for consistent and stable development of the country there as to special welfare social programs that would defend all classes of the society.    Reluctant collectivists proposed that there has to be state intervention in the country’s economy that would execute the role of ‘mechanism for making good the failure of the market to control avoidable ills’, but they didn’t have a purpose of using it as the only instrument for economical change.    Two of the most known reluctant collectivists Keynes and Beveridge are known to be the founders of the British Welfare sate. They strongly believed in the concept of free market relations, and the minimization of the state intervention by their opinion would maximize the efficiency of economics, political and social freedoms.   Ã‚  Ã‚   But still reluctant collectivists argued that for a wide variety of political and economical reasons the market in the free society was not working on the ideal level as it was noted by economic theorists. The economical problems and social issues that Great Britain faced during and after WW2 motivated the need of state regulation, as they proposed. By their opinion the economical waste and instability may discredit parliamentary democracy and gave the birth to mistrust to the government.    Even though that reluctant collectivists were in favor of state regulations and intervention of state to the market and economics of the country in the serious period of economical situation, they still didn’t fully support social insurance system. By their opinion the organization of social security is not the state’s problem, the assistance schemes of the government according to reluctant collectivists should simply include the guarantee of living income for each citizen. And that’s why the living standards above the minimum wage have to be gained by individuals themselves.    The philosophical premises of the reluctant collectivism are originated in the theories of free market, which is considered to be the best mechanism that insures initiative of the individual and hence political freedom.   But here comes the question: if there has to be a need in state regulation of market and economical relations how much of the intervention is needed for that. The obvious answer is the following: the weakness and the strengths of the market have to be analyzed first. This pragmatism puts reluctant collectivists close to the conservatives, whose philosophy accepts the preserving of the best that remains from the past, while adopting new things that are most likely to change the situation for better.    Justification of their political aims and program by reluctant collectivists during the period of serious economical issues in the UK helped Conservatives to come to power in 1950ies and 1960ies. But still the theory of â€Å"reluctant collectivism† that seems to rapidly react on the changes in state’s market and economy can not fully answer the question what is good for the further development of market that doesn’t face problems. As the result the existing problems in understanding of the market development program caused the contradictions in the views of conservatives and those who belonged to reluctant collectivists. The understanding of the market virtues by reluctant collectivists didn’t give the chance for introducing and practicing economical and market reforms. As a result most of their programs lost their actuality in 1960ies. Reference George. V. & Wilding, P(1985). The Reluctant collectivists. In ideology and social welfare(pp.44-68). New York: Routledge.