The British prime minister and the leader of her majesty's opposition gave speeches on the same day recently, outlining their vision for their country's economy — and by implication, its society. They had little in common.
It's hardly surprising. Prime Minister Theresa May is to the right of her Conservative Party; Jeremy Corbyn is on the far left of his Labour Party. But there is more than that: The antagonistic visions of May and Corbyn indicate a great disruption in the politics of the world, where the forecasts of a convergence around free market liberalism as history ends (Francis Fukuyama), and an end of ideology (Daniel Bell) have been exploded.
Britain, where the political party system first developed from the struggle between monarch and parliament in the 17th century, makes the clash of philosophies and practices most clearly visible. At his party conference in left-voting Liverpool, Corbyn told the wildly supportive hall that "the whole edifice of greed-is-good deregulated financial capitalism, lauded for a generation as the only way to run a modern economy, came crashing to earth, with devastating consequences."
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