A Permanent Revolution? Zealots & Common Sense

Abstract

It is over 12 years since the beginning of the revolution of the "commercialisation of New Zealand". Twelve years after the fall of the Bastille the French revolution was over, and Napoleon ruled. Twelve years after the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian revolution was over and Stalin had expelled Trotsky and Buhkarin. Neither country returned to a period of some sort of normality, but nor was there the view that the revolution was incomplete, and needed to be progressed.

Yet 12 years after Rogernomics, key revolutionaries continue to call for further reforms. The terms of reference given to Alan Schick by the State Services Commission and Treasury talk about further "improvements" and "future progress". Recently the Chairman of the Business Round table demanded further economic re-structuring. We may wonder why after 12 years the reformers have still not got it right. Pessimists might wonder whether the revolutionaries are punch-drunk Maoists, committed to a permanent revolution for its own sake, planning a cultural revolution sometime in the future.