The Icelandic Left

Since Davíð Oddsson became prime minister in Iceland in 1991 many things have changed. The government has sold its phone company, its banks and many of its factories and in some scale liberalized the school-system, the financial market and so on, and some tax-reliefs have been made. A lot of work is still ahead for the believers of free enterprise and free market society, but many steps have been taken in the positive direction (and others in the negative one, but lets leave that out for now). In short it can be said that these steps towards market solutions have turned out extremely well for both people and companies, and no indications have come up that the government should increase its operation again where it has let go.

But how is it to be a Leftist when things turn out like this? How is it to be a Leftist in a country where the government has decreased its role in many fields with these very positive results? Well, two approaches have been made:

• To say that the government has gone far enough in its liberalization and should stop now. However, the government should not take steps backwards since things have gone so smoothly. What has been done has turned out good, but no more steps should be taken since those will be disastrous.
• Privitize a little more, and see how it goes, but do it very slowly. Actually so slowly that it can hardly be done! Take very small and slow steps but with great caution. In practice so small and slow that they can't really be taken, but at least are open for discussion.

I imagine its the same in all other countries with right-winged governments.

I'm glad I discovered early in my life that the government is not the key to common welfare and high living-standards. The more I read from the Right and the Left the more I'm convinced that my instincts were right from the start and that both logic and experience go hand in hand in underlining my beliefs. When I at one point thought the government should restrict drug-supply and fund a welfare-system I just had to gather reading-material and watch the news to see the approach which works. When I at one point thought the government should run the school-system I only had to compare the government and the free enterprise to change my views. The list is endless and always makes my opinions swing further towards a belief of a free and open market of limited government and increased self-control of people and companies. If I at some point was a little to the left on various issues, those have quickly changed.

I can only imagine that the situation is similar for a large number of individuals in search of their political beliefs. Icelanders have for the past 15 years or so seen more of the power of free enterprise than many other nations, and I hope the process will continue until we can finally hope for a free society.