Artikel

Overheid en vrije markteconomie

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Abstract

Government and the market economy — Traditionally the economic literature recognizes three categories of tasks for the government : an allocation function (= to promote economic efficiency in the nation) ; the distribution branch (= to distribute and/or redistribute the profits yielded by the economic process) and the stabilisation branch (= to ensure the continuity in the economic life of the nation). The purpose of this article is to see in how far the government (in Belgium) fulfils all these tasks. After a brief analysis of the (rather poor) results of the actual interventions, we investigate why those results are so disappointing. There are three main reasons. First of all, the day-to-day working of the decision-making process is only a pale picture of the theoretical democratic model which is supposed to exist. Secondly, as the market mechanism is eliminated, there are no more „incentives” for the government to do their job in an economic way. Finally the enormous and uncontrolled influence of rather limited pressure-groups does not promote social justice and equality. As a result of all this, we may conclude that — contrary to the popular belief — governmental interventions in the social and economic life of a nation are not always to the advantage of the majority of the population. As an alternative to improve the working of the public authorities, we prefer the reintroduction of the free-market principles. This is the only way to bring back the financial responsibility in governmental actions and to secure a better achievement of the theoretical objectives.

How to Cite:

Bienstman, M., (1980) “Overheid en vrije markteconomie”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 25(1), 61–91. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.94753