14.The Western World by the end of the XX century

1. Brief content of the lecture

1. Economic crises of the 1970-80-s

In the 70-s –crisis of the welfare state- the world economic crises made it impossible to provide the social reforms.

Economic crises of 1974- 1975 and 1980-1982 were not typical crises of overproduction, they were structural crises as they took place in all spheres of economy and social life.

*Theory of Keynes was ineffective because

** Cause of the crisis of the 70-s was energy problem ( oil) and was connected with political situation

Peculiarities of the crises: stagflation

world financial crisis

unemployment- 16, 8 mln young people who were born after the war and had no experience lost their job;

ecologic crisis-

The welfare state was criticized by “ neo- conservatives” for spending money on social sphere.

The main idea of neo- conservatism was the weakening of state regulation and development of private business. Neo- conservatives came to power in many countries ( M.Thatcher in Great Britain, R. Reagan in the USA).

2 Changes in the 1980-90-s

Changes in social structures.

New technical revolution ( or information revolution) was the way to overcome the crisis and it led to the great social changes:

1. deindustrialization- number of workers in service ( not in industry) increased .

Structure of employment (%)in the 50-90-s

Countries	agriculture	Industry	Service
France 50-s 90-s	28,2 5,2	37,1 28,9	34,7 65,9
Germany 50-s 90-s	24,4 3,1	42,9 38,3	37,5 58,6
Great Britain 50-s 90-s	5,1 2,1	47,6 28,8	47,3 69,1
USA 50-s 90-s	12,7 2,8	35,6 25,0	51,7 72,2

Mainly, small and middle business were developed very fast. Businessmen of these two groups very often work at home using the electronic forms of communication, they agree with their firms or companies about individual work day, individual terms and individual salaries- trade unions’ role decrease. Strikes or conflicts are not the usual thing.

Political changes:

* Tendency to ? model of political development.

Communist movement became weak, it was replaced by the social- democratic movement: in many countries the social-democrats are at power.

Constitutions adopted after the WWII included the articles about democratic freedoms and refusal from war .

Questions for test

a. Causes of the economic crisis of the 1970-s

b. Peculiarities of the crises

c. Structural changes in the result of the crisis

d. Outcome from the crisis

“Stagflation” is:

A) inflation, stagnation

B) stabilization, inflation

C) political party

D) postindustrial society

After the world economic crisis of the 1970-s countries:

A) established Breton –Woods system

B) refused from ECU

C) introduced EURO

D) refused from Breton- Woods system

One of the reason of economic crisis of 1970-s was:

A) nuclear crisis

B) coal and steel crisis

C) oil crisis

D) political crisis

Economic crises of 1974-1975 and 1980-1982 were:

A) typical crises of overproduction

B) only ecologic crises

C) structural crises

D) only political crises

Glossary

“floating course” – «плавающий курс»

theory of monetarism- теория монетаризма

discontent - недовольство

employment- занятость