a question about right-wing governments

[Mr. Peepers]

The closest match you'll find are some of the Latin American dictatorships in the 80s (Chile is a prime example).

Which were aided and championed by Reagan & the CIA. We are partially responsible for the horror that was Pinochet. Read up on that horrific shock therapy / austerity debacle.

 

[FA_Q2]

ok so if we remove the religious aspect?

what then?

we are left with small gov/low-taxes/deregulation

is there a county..and it doesnt have to be a western country..that is successful doing this?

I guess my short answer would be "no". There are a number of historical cases where the economic ideology of the Republican party has been tried without a lot of success. Great Britain is in the middle of such an experiment right now. Their government just revised it's second quarter GDP growth estimates from -0.7% to -0.5%. Many economists argue that from the numbers, Britain has handled this crisis worse than they handled 1929--32.

There is a raging debate in the economics profession about "expansionary austerity; the belief that the solution to our economic situation is for nations to cut spending and lower the budget deficits. This is has been the view of the British government (which is the only one I know of to really voluntarily choose this route; Greece etc. were forced to it), the European Central Bank when Trichet was running it, and especially the German government. On the other side has been the International Monetary Fund the United States Federal Reserve, and quite a few (but still a minority) of economists from which Paul Krugman has emerged as the intellectual leader. I belong to the later group and if anyone wants to discuss economic theory, economic policy, or economic history I will be happy to do so.

Hope this helps.

Jamie

Really? You use GB as an example? They are not even close.