Privatization, Thatcherism, and the British State

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5776501
AutoresAndrew Gamble (0000-0002-4387-4272, autor correspondente)
Ano1988
Volume16
Fascículo1
Páginas1-1
Data de publicação1988-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Law and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0263-323X • E-ISSN: 1467-6478
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2307/1409974
OpenAlexW2317434267
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas15
Referências citadas6

The Conservative victory in the 1979 General Election brought into office a government that was determined to end British decline and the crisis of state authority by making an ideological and political break with social democracy. This project has taken its name from the Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. But 'Thatcherism' has always been a highly controversial term. Opinion is divided as to whether the election of the Thatcher Government marked a major watershed in British politics, comparable to 1945. Many have argued that Thatcherism is more noteworthy for its rhetoric than for its achievements. They have been opposed by those who, while admitting that Thatcherism has often been incoherent and contradictory, nevertheless insist that what distinguishes the Thatcher Government from most of its predecessors is its strategic purpose.' Thatcherism projects a vision of a new social and economic order, which carries with it major implications for political and legal relationships.2 Thatcherism has appeared most clearly as a radical force through its challenge to many features of the existing state. Its main target has been social democracy. During the 1970s it came under strong attack in many countries, both as a form of government and as a governing doctrine. In Britain many of the assumptions and the priorities that had been established in the 1940s and the years of prosperity that followed were questioned and discarded. As the balance of forces between classes and nations shifted, so a new politics began to emerge, giving opportunities for both left and right. Old orthodoxies were swept away. The 1940s settlement in Britain had created a framework for policy which proved durable. It was based on a series of compromises from which emerged a new understanding about the constraints within which government operated and a new conception about the relationship between the public and private sectors

Thatcherism · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies