Free market flawed, says survey

[Trevor Watkins]

By James Robbins
Diplomatic correspondent, BBC News

The Berlin Wall comes down, 10 Nov 1989
The fall of the wall looked like a crushing victory for capitalism

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new BBC poll has
found widespread dissatisfaction with free-market capitalism.

In the global poll for the BBC World Service, only 11% of those
questioned across 27 countries said that it was working well.

Most thought regulation and reform of the capitalist system were
necessary.

There were also sharp divisions around the world on whether the end of
the Soviet Union was a good thing.

Economic regulation

In 1989, as the Berlin Wall fell, it was a victory for ordinary people
across Eastern and Central Europe.

It also looked at the time like a crushing victory for free-market
capitalism.

A Frankfurt stock trader, Oct 2008
A Frankfurt trader tries to deal during the 2008 banking crisis

Twenty years on, this new global poll suggests confidence in free
markets has taken heavy blows from the past 12 months of financial and
economic crisis.

More than 29,000 people in 27 countries were questioned. In only two
countries, the United States and Pakistan, did more than one in five
people feel that capitalism works well as it stands.

Almost a quarter - 23% of those who responded - feel it is fatally
flawed. That is the view of 43% in France, 38% in Mexico and 35% in
Brazil.

And there is very strong support around the world for governments to
distribute wealth more evenly. That is backed by majorities in 22 of
the 27 countries.

If there is one issue where a global consensus seems to emerge from
the survey it is this: there are majorities almost everywhere wanting
government to be more active in regulating business.

It is only in Turkey that a majority want less government regulation.

Opinion about the disintegration of the Soviet Union is sharply
divided.

Europeans overwhelmingly say it was a good thing: 79% in Germany, 76%
in Britain and 74% in France feel that way.

But outside the developed West it is a different picture. Almost seven
in 10 Egyptians say the end of the Soviet Union was a bad thing and
views are sharply divided in India, Kenya and Indonesia.

See full article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8347409.stm