Liberalism and the Role of the State in the Economy

The main topic of the article is the attitude of modern liberal thought to the role of the state in contemporary market economy. The market mechanism of allocation works to-day in conjunction with supporting and corrective policies of the government. In discussing this model present-day liberalism is contrasted with the neo-liberal doctrine. Liberalism perceives the role of the state as a co-regulator of the economy, whose intervention is particularly important with regard to equitable distribution of incomes. It is wrong to believe that liberalism is opposed to pro-social programmes. By contrast, anti-social programmes are characteristic of the neo-liberal ideology whose claim to represent the sole correct interpretation of economic theory is totally groundless.