Advice about Adam Smith for France

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Gavin Kennedy

William Lyons, Arts Correspondent of the Scotsman on Sunday, writes a short piece, 27 November, “Study Adam Smith to solve crisis, Chirac told”. The theme is the difference between the consequences of the Scottish Enlightenment for Britain and the French Enlightenment for France, from a speech by Arthur Herman (“How the Scots Invented the Modern World”) to the Royal Scottish Academy.

Herman said: “What we are witnessing in France are the implications of an Enlightenment that stressed the growth of power in the state and the role of the community over the individual.” In Contrast Scots can say: “Look, we have within our own past the principles and ideas that can be used to revitalise Western Europe.”
"Adam Smith should not just be read by emerging democracies in the Middle East, it should be read by Jacques Chirac."
Dr Madsen Pirie, president of the Adam Smith Institute, said: "If the French paid more attention to the principles of Adam Smith, they would maybe have the economic growth which is the best antidote to civil disorder. It is a fact that in economies that are experiencing growth there are more opportunities created, which leads to more jobs. This situation avoids the current despair many people feel in the suburbs of France."

Comment:

Media interest in Adam Smith continues to grow in Scotland (Dr Pirie’s colleague, Eamonn Butler, Director of the Adam Smith Institute, has a piece in The Business on railway privatisation in Europe) and this is gratifying, compared to the situation a year or more ago.

Visit the Adam Smith Institute by clicking on the button on the left.; and read the full article in Scotland on Sunday at: http://news.scotsman.com/education.cfm?id=2310592005

Incidentally, booth Drs Pirie and Butler's suggestions are are excellent - now, if only the French President and the French railways (SNCF) would take a few moment s to consider them seriously.