By combining fiscal responsibility, growth, and social development, progressive governments in Brazil and Spain have improved millions of people’s lives and refuted the hoary belief that conservatives are better stewards of the economy. Such a successful alternative model could not have come at a better time.
BRASÍLIA/MADRID—Few zombie ideas return as persistently as the claim that right-wing governments are good for the economy, whereas progressive administrations mismanage it. Yet this belief reflects a conception of economics that ignores the sustainability of growth and conservatives’ actual record.