Is the number of self-employed people rising or declining? In traditional sectors like retail, their number all across Europe is certainly going down. In new sectors like those involving digital knowhow, the tendency is for the self-employed to increase although whether this is sustainable remains a moot point. Then there are the service sectors (like consultancies and other professional activities) where the status of self-employment seems not to be so clear; in a number of cases, the work carried out seems to have been done previously by full-time employees.

A reason that is frequently given in the bigger European countries to explain why the self-employed get  discouraged and give up is the bureaucracy they have to face in carrying out their business. They fear that if they fail to do properly what needs to be done, even if it's due to some involuntary mistake, legal problems will abound. Moreover, to follow all the regulations that small and medium sized enterprises must satisfy, requires much of the time that should be devoted to the enterprises' proper business.

There exists a general agreement that the self-employed should be afforded all encouragement, but not a definite view regarding the extent to which regulations should be trimmed to give more leeway to the sector as a whole.

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CONSENSUS

A friend of mine said: I don't think it's such a tragedy that the two big parties are continually at each other's throat and accuse each other of a thousand sins. They're exagerrating and they're really boring doing this, even if it happens in all democracies. But better that it's this way rather than if they're buddy buddies. Their constant quarrelling helps to ensure that scandals don't just get buried.

What I dislike however is that they seem not to want to agree about anything. In such a case, the situation of the country doesn't look so pretty as the impression could be given that it's sliding towards civil war. There must be a set of principles, political directions and programmes that the two sides agree about and how they should be deployed in the best national interest. Wouldn't it be a good a good idea if a listing is prepared of the matters about which there is consensus?

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VIABLE?

Some are comparing the developments these last years in the US and Europe to what happened during the 1930's. The economic system then failed to keep up with the aspirations of the people who turned to authoritarian regimes because they considered that democracy was no longer viable as a governance tool adapted to advance their interests. Fascism spread on the foundations of an extreme, xenophobic populism.

Is the same happening today or will it be happening?

I disagree that democracy is no longer viable although the risk that it could become so is perhaps greater than it was a few decades ago. A problem probably is that Western democracies have remained too arrogant in how they perceive themselves and the rest of the world. This leads them to adopt principles, decisions and strategies that do not reflect their true position in the world and drive them into dead ends from which it's not at all easy to exit.