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Behold, the beast changes shape

Attitudes to the big state have swung to and fro, from the liberal attack on patronage in the 19th century to the embrace of the social-democratic consensus after the second world war to Thatcherite privatisation in the 1980s. There are some signs that another rethink is imminent: witness the budget cuts in the euro zone, the battle between Wisconsin’s governor and the public-sector unions and David Cameron’s “Big Society” rhetoric. There is even the probability that the state’s share of GDP may slip back in the short term, as the recovery lifts the overall economy. But many efforts at reform are timid—witness the mendacious budgets produced in Washington by both Barack Obama and the Republicans and their refusal to touch entitlements. If nothing is done other than slimming a few departments, Leviathan will be on the march again.
Why? Because, despite all that rhetoric from the tea-partiers, big government is not just the fault of self-interested bureaucrats and leftist politicians. Conservative voters, even if they don’t like taxes, have kept on demanding that the state does more. Just as the left has built hospitals, announced endless programmes to help the poor and indulged the teachers’ unions, the right has built prisons, announced wars on drugs and terror, and indulged generals, farmers and policemen. And there are also two structural causes of big government. First, productivity in the state sector, especially in fields like education and health, has lagged behind the private sector. And second, there has been a huge increase in “social transfers”, especially benefits for the middle classes and the elderly.


A. 어휘

Behold 보다, 지켜보다. swing-swung-swung 흔들거리다, 진동, 그네.
patronage 보호, 후원. embrace 包容(포용).
Thatcher 前영국수상. privatisation 민영화. imminent 臨迫(임박)한.
public-sector unions 공공부문노조. David Cameron 現영국수상.
timid 겁 많은, 소심한. mendacious 거짓의, 부정직한.
the Republicans 공화당의원(원).
entitlements 특정 집단에 대한 정부의 재정지원. 혜택수급권.
tea-partiers 작은 정부와 감세를 주창하는 사람들.
self-interested 이기적인. bureaucrats 관료. Conservative 보수적인.
indulge 응석을 받아들이다. lagged behind 뒤처지다.
social transfers 사회적 移轉(이전).