ABSTRACT
Questions that underlay the wars of the twentieth century included: ‘What should be the aim and scope of the government of industrialised society?’ and, ‘Should social and economic progress be rationally planned by government, or should government only maintain a framework of laws?’ This chapter covers the three competing models of government: socialist, fascist and liberal-democratic, with special attention to neoliberalism. The histories of Soviet communism and Italian fascism are recounted, showing how both resulted in inhumane totalitarian government and ultimately in failure, even though they exemplified distinctive methods of government. As for liberalism, the post-war social-democratic compromise ushered in three decades of prosperity, followed by the neoliberal assault on ‘big government’ – a reflexive critique of government itself. Following an account of the history of neoliberal ideas and their applications, it is argued that the era of neoliberal reform was ended by the crisis of capital in 2008 and the pandemic of 2020, neither of which was ‘supposed to happen’. In addition, we ask how ‘democratic’ the representative systems of the twentieth century really are.
