As a counter trend to that, favoring the government to play a key role in economic and social affairs as what prevailed during the Fifties and Sixties of last century; a new strong intellectual trend was crystallized by the end of Seventies and early Eighties of the same century, which called for limiting the government’s role in the economy, and for encouraging the adoption of market Economy as an alternative basic mechanism in allocating the resources and in controlling the trends of economic activities.
This new intellectual trend was met with considerable political support from the International major capitalist centers, namely Great Britain during the time of prim Minister Margaret Thatcher; and the USA during the administration of President Ronald Regan at that time. The mentioned political support for Market Economy was also accompanied with similar strong baking from international financial establishments such as World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Undoubtedly، such a new trend Would have not emerged and expanded worldwide, unless certain favorable circumstances and factors have had emerged, and consequently gave the justifications for calling the government to shrink its role in the economy, and to expand, as an alternative, the role of Market forces in directing and orienting the economic activities.
In the forefront of those factors and circumstances، was the deterioration in the indicators of economic performance at the social ruling systems like in the former Soviet Union, and the other East European countries; as well as the development crisis which other developing countries have witnessed and suffered from during the last three decades of the twentieth century.
Hence، shifting from an economic system in which the government would practice a central and leading role, into another system where the principles of free economy become the determining factors, would, result into changing the basic rules of the economic game, and also would lead to changing the locations and roles of the basic and active players in that game: (the state i.e. government; the privet sector; and the civil society) |