Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
This list is far from complete, and few, if any of us, embrace all these ideologies. Most of
us develop our personal ideologies according to the intensity of the values we hold. And
most of us accord highest intensity to the values imparted by family, friends, and schools,
an intensity second only to the dominant values of our culture. Of all the values we carry,
three tend to claim a privileged place: religion, nationalism, and economics.
WISE TRAVELERS AND POLICY ISSUES
An important part of the wise traveler's education is to understand the policy issues and
political choices of other countries. It is important to recognize that in non-democratic
countries, effective political choices do not exist. The “president for life” may keep post-
poning promised elections. Police may break up political meetings and arrest those who
attend. Thugs on government payroll may assault people going to vote. And policy issues
tend to be cloudy and obtuse. Slogans, not issues, dominate public discourse. In democratic
regimes, policy issues and policy choices tend to be transparent and accessible. That, after
all, is what freedom of speech and press is all about. Is this issue important or trivial? And
if so, why? For the wise traveler, the more important the issue and the more fully it is dis-
cussed, the wider the window it opens onto a country's central values.
DEBATE OVER THE WELFARE STATE
In the Cold War years (1945 to the late 1980s), confrontation between the Soviet Union
and western democracies took center stage in policymaking. For the Soviet Union and its
allies, an important goal was to export Soviet-style communism around the world. The Un-
ited States and its allies were united by a mirror-image goal: to contain the Soviet Union.
For both sets of protagonists, two matching questions were paramount: (1) how to expand
our dominion without unleashing a nuclear war and (2) how to contain the other side's ex-
pansion.
Foreign policy aside, and especially since the Cold War ended, the major issue for
democratic governments in Europe has been the welfare state. What role should govern-
ment play in making people's lives better? Which services should be provided at taxpayers'
expense? How much should the gap between rich and poor be closed? If we presume that
the welfare state is to be expanded, which economic policies will best achieve full employ-
ment, low inflation, and economic growth? And can a government even continue to provide
a comprehensive welfare state in light of global economic uncertainties and challenges?
In most of the world, these questions are part of socialism's legacy. In the United
States, these questions are almost never (except pejoratively) identified with their socialist
origins. As Americans, our dedication to the ideals of the free market, in spirit if not in
practice, requires that we carefully avoid references to socialism. So, when first introduced,
Social Security (government-run old-age pensions) was described as a form of social insur-
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