Leap into the dark

As New Zealanders know only too well, their country has been transformed in the last decade. A protected economy has been opened to international market forces. The public service has been revolutionised. Users pay. Hospitals have become 'Crown Health Enterprises'. School fees in a public system have become routine. The labour force, 'freed' from union control, has been subjected to free market forces. Unemployment has ballooned but assistance to the unemployed has reduced. Plastic cards identify those 'targeted' for welfare. The state, which was supposed to be getting smaller, seems to have become more intrusive. . Maybe the reforming governments since 1984 believed they would take the electorate with them. If so, they were wrong. They took a leap into the dark and misjudged the opinions of the people they represented. Or maybe the politicians and their advisers thought their simple and elegant market theories would produce the goods, and thus convince the people. If so, they were wrong again. Thinking they were marching steadily forward, the way ahead illuminated by their ideas, they were, once more, leaping into the dark. Things kept turning out contrary to their confident predictions. . In this volume of essays the changes are examined with sceptical eyes by experts in the various fields which have been reformed and revolutionised. The writers do not always agree on the detail of their criticisms and suggestions; but all are united in their belief that much clumsiness, ineptitude and lack of thought has characterised the revolutionaries. Readers will need to decide for themselves.