Right Ideas and Left Thinkers: The Case of the 'Free' Market

Abstract

That free-market economic ideas are maintained and propagated by the political Right is scarcely surprising. In its historic appeal that free-market forces are to be sought continuously in order to facilitate maximum economic growth and the efficient allocation of resources, sustained prosperity,and the decentralisation of (political) power,the Right has attempted to formulate a vision of economy and society legitimate enough to sustain available electoral platform. Traditionally, the western Left has retained a view that is hostile to, or at least sceptical of, free-market forces, not least because of the Left's insistence that any extant imbalance in political economic power will be exacerbated by a disproportionate growth of private activity in the face of the inaction of the state. Across the political spectrum, the term 'free-market' denotes a dominance of the market over politics.