ABSTRACT
There is, however, an undercurrent of pessimism with respect to the probability of lasting attitudinal change. True, many left-leaning parties lost elections if they happened to be in power when cracks appeared in the solid facade of the increasingly regulated market and redistributive state, but liberal centre-right parties that were in power did as badly, runs the argument. Such reasoning assumes that if they regained power those who lost would return to their old ways regardless of the changed environment and available resources. This pessimism is not borne out by recent experience. Many socialist governments, as we have seen, were forced to apply austerity measures, although they were admittedly less ready to tackle the more daunting, and for them politically distasteful, task of overhauling the respective regulatory and redistributive machinery. Also, liberal and market-oriented (so-called centre-right) governments were returned to power in the United Kingdom and the United States with much greater majorities than before, even though they had presided over the deepest recession since the second world war.
