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NEO-LIBERAL IDEOLOGY AND POLICIES IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE/171

But before analysing the new neo-liberal fashion, it is worth taking
a look at what came immediately before it.

THE 1930s TO THE 1970s: LIBERALISM ECLIPSED

After having occupied centre stage in the nineteenth century and
the first third of the twentieth century, liberal thought was eclipsed
for the long period going from the middle of the 1930s to the end of
the 1970s.
During this time - from the 1930s in North and South America,
after the Second World War in Europe - policies involving strong
government intervention in the economy came to hold sway. This
was true of the US under Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s (see
glossary) and 30 years later under the Kennedy administration. It
was true of Britain under Beveridge (advised by J.M. Keynes) during
the Second World War and under subsequent Labour governments.
After the Second World War, it was true of France, Germany,
Holland, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries. Keynesianism
held sway, whether of the social democratic, 'socialist' or social-
Christian variety.

In the countries of Eastern Europe, a dogmatic and authoritarian
version of Marxism backed by bureaucratic regimes came to
dominate. Large-scale nationalisations of private companies followed
the establishment of 'people's democracies' after the Second World
War.
In a certain number of key Third World countries, developmental-
ist, nationalist and even socialist (China after the 1949 revolution)
policies came to the fore. Anti-communist regimes in the Third
World, such as in South Korea and Taiwan, carried out radical
agrarian reforms and built a strong industrial sector under the wing
of the state. This is the central (and usually obscured) reason for the
economic 'miracle' that took place in these two 'tiger' economies.
The policies that created the past successes of South Korea and
Taiwan stand in stark contrast to neo-liberal prescriptions. This point
cannot be overemphasised.

The eclipse of liberalism came about as a result of the prolonged
economic crisis that began with the Wall Street Crash in 1929, as a
result of the victory of fascism and Nazism, and as a result of their
defeat at the hands of the masses and Allied forces (US, USSR, Britain,
France). The war and the defeat of fascism opened the way for