Published in the National Business Review of 16 July 2004
Is Bastille Day 1984 worth remembering? Only if you value economic and personal freedom, and an end to dominant government, largely controlled by one despotic figure.

For the historically minded, July 14 1789 was the day that the citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille, a royal prison in Paris, marking what the world now regards as the beginning of the French Revolution.

July 14 1984 was the day that the citizens of New Zealand elected the Lange Labour government, marking what the world still regards as the beginning of a bold economic experiment.

There are two parallels between the circumstances of the French king, Louis XVI and the New Zealand Prime Minister, Rob Muldoon, and one striking difference.

Both Louis XVI and Muldoon were having trouble with their government's finances. And by their actions, both unleashed forces they could not subsequently control.

The Revolution in France took shape when the controller general of finances, Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, summoned an assembly of "notables" in February 1787 to discuss eliminating the budget deficit by increasing the taxation of the privileged classes. (Shades of the Income Tax Reform Bill (numbers two and four) which provoked some much opposition among National's liberal backbenchers in 1984.)

"The assembly refused to take responsibility for the reforms and suggested calling the Estates-General, which represented the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners (the Third Estate)." the Encyclopedia Britannica says. The Estates General had not met since 1614.

Elections to the Estates-General were held between January and April 1789. The 600 deputies of the Third Estate, 300 for the nobility, and 300 for the clergy, met in the palace of Versailles on 5 May 1789, carrying their cahiers de dol