720
R. H. S. CROSSMAN
and those outside the schemes. Even worse, it tempts the Govern–
ment to renege on its resJX>nsibility for providing security in old age
and leave it to Big Business, at its own discretion, to build up its
own "private-enterprise welfare state." As the scale of organization
gets larger and as the concentrations of power grow ever greater,
there should be a corresponding increase of public service and demo–
cratic control. But in fact what we see is a dwindling role for
Government. "This is retreat from Government," he concludes; "a
retreat into irresponsibility."
At first sight it is surprising that this retreat from Government
has been greeted with enthusiasm by the voter in all the countries
of the West. When the war ended, public opinion, in North America
as well as in Western Europe, still dreaded the return of mass un–
employment and was ready to welcome great extensions of public
ownership, of State control and interference in the private sector
and of State provision of social services. Now, fifteen years later,
public opinion has turned not only against nationalization but
against extensions of the Welfare State; and most of the European
labor movements have either abandoned their Socialism already or
begun to consider the possibility of doing so. The reason for this ex–
traordinary reversal is clear. Together with the rapid movement
towards irresponsible oligopoly, there bas proceeded a rapid, if
Wl–
even, improvement in living standards. Since World War II,
throughout the West, democratic institutions have been used with
even greater success than before the war to create effective con–
sumer demand. The constant trade union pressure for higher wages,
the success of farmers' organizations in extracting huge subsidies
from their governments, and the favor shown by the woman voter
to any JX>litician who promises to increase her spending JX>wer–
these and other factors, when combined with full employment, have
obtained huge concessions for the masses and given them the feeling
that they "have never had it so
good."
The oligopolists, moreover, once they had learnt the Keynesian
doctrine, were quick to see that it was in their interest to ensure that
the volume of private spending was constantly increased, while the
volume of public expenditure was kept as low as JX>ssible. During
the war and the immediate post-war years, a gigantic volume of
pent-up popular demand for consumer goods, household goods, gad-
