Gene Coyle wrote: > The WSJ has an on-line feature called "Real Time Economics" which > sends me a post every day. I think it is every day. Today's has > a segment "Economic right and Left" which asks "How do the right and > left differ?". > > Mankiw's blog has his answer at > http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-do-right-and-left-differ.html > . > I think Mankiw sees liberals as the left. > But as I read what amounts to a shallow presentation to his Econ 10 > class at Harvard it struck me that the real difference between the > Economic right and left is between static and dynamic analysis. The > right is stuck with static analysis in a dynamic economy.
to my mind, the left/right continuum as usually described is for cocktail parties, pen-l, and other fun discussion, but not for serious discussion. More apt would be a two or three dimensional system. 1. Up vs. down would be "centralized, top-down solutions" vs. "decentralized, bottom-up solutions." This is similar to Mankiw's state vs. market spectrum, which is used by almost all ortho-economists. His last point gets us into the next spectrum. 2. Left vs. right would be according to class: the left sides with the poor and working classes, while the right favors the rich and capitalist classes. 3. A third dimension -- future vs. present? -- might be added: willingness to change social norms according to what's seen as right vs. commitment to traditional ways of life. Awhile back, Krugman's column cited some research by some political scientists where they defined left vs. right according to actual congressional votes (in the US). Congresscritters were seen as similar to the extent that their votes were similar. This produced a two-dimensional map: left vs. right (on class lines) vs. a second (partly related) axis on race (Black vs. White) issues. Over time, if I remember, the second axis was merging with the first. Gene suggests that the right-wing economists are static, while left-wing economists are dynamic. I guess that's generally accurate. -- Jim Devine / "The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking." -- John Kenneth Galbraith
