Simon-Reid Henry, an Associate Professor in Geography, at Queens Mary University, has written what is arguably one the most impressive books of the last half a century.
Instead of using a simplistic approach, framed within the context of democratic progressivism, or, democracy lashing on the shores of various countries in what the late Samuel Huntington called “waves of democracy,” Simon Reid-Henry dispensed with all of the above, most notably, the thesis of “the end of history” once propounded with gusto by Francis Fukuyama just moments after the end of the Cold War as marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Instead, Simon Reid Henry described a democratic process soon after the end of World War II, that was tremendously messy for the countries that called themselves the “trans atlantic nations.”
No single country, least of all the United States (USA) or the United Kingdom (UK), often considered the bastion of democracy could create an economically fair and equal world.
To the degree the likes of Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish economist could migrate to the US in 1941, some of his socialist ideas could not gain any tractions.
That was not because America was being America. Rather, the US was on one hand celebrating the triumph of World War II in 1945, but at the same time seeking various self entitlements, which the Americans had received in the forms of the perks and privileges of the GI Bills.
Meanwhile, othwr classes or groups of people in America were left in a lurch. No matter how progressive and equitanle were their economic agendas, American politicians had struck a deal to prioritize the affair of the returning soldiers and consrcripts first.
Soldiers in Europ demanded no less. But then Europe was very bastion and the theater of conflict. To the degree they want to receive any warm hearing from the politicians, they could. But not to the extent of the American counterparts.
Meanwhilez as America seemingly raced ahead, its involvement in various interactable conrlicts such the Vietnam War between 1962 and 1975, had thrown a monkey spanner in the democratic progress of the US.
Thus Simon Reid-Henry took us across European Union (EU) to explain the wrenching processes of trying to deliver more welfare to the expect expectantant populations.
Those in Scandinavia was lucky to have achieved this bargain. Those in other parts of EU were not so lukcy—–not unless they refuced the taxes and non tariff barries embedded within the economy to make itself more amenable to free market reforms.
While President Bill Clinton definitely made it impaft in carrying out the trade policy of the previous administration in implementing the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), subsequent administrations have appeared to appeared that template.
Instead of the EU is doing its best to stich its EU project together, ostensibly to give it greater coherence.
But the economic cycles none the less is punctuated by booms and busts which make for a difficult planning—especially when the workers welfare and rights in Eastern Europe, for that matter, the EU had constantly been ducked.
“Empire of Democracy, ” first coined by Alexis de Tocqueville. That the likes of the US could bring the lights of democracy forward.
What Simon Reid-Henry is saying is that such a project with many risks and dangers, foremost of which, is the ability to overcome the economic malaise of oneself. This is a great book in the sense that Simon Reid-Henry had merely writren it in his thirties inspired by his wife and two sons.
If more authors can write the history of the last 60 years or 70 years with such clarity, perhaps many would not be so haughty to assume that democracy can travel almost ineluctably.