Conservative Economic Policymaking and the Birth of Thatcherism, 1964-1979
Title | Conservative Economic Policymaking and the Birth of Thatcherism, 1964-1979 PDF eBook |
Author | Adrian Williamson |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 396 |
Release | 2016-01-12 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1137460261 |
In this book, Adrian Williamson investigates the processes by which Thatcherism became established in Tory thinking, and questions to what extent the politician herself is responsible for Thatcherism within the Conservative Party.
Conservative Economic Policymaking and the Birth of Thatcherism, 1964-1979
Title | Conservative Economic Policymaking and the Birth of Thatcherism, 1964-1979 PDF eBook |
Author | Adrian Williamson |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 407 |
Release | 2016-01-12 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1137460261 |
In this book, Adrian Williamson investigates the processes by which Thatcherism became established in Tory thinking, and questions to what extent the politician herself is responsible for Thatcherism within the Conservative Party.
The Free Economy and the Strong State
Title | The Free Economy and the Strong State PDF eBook |
Author | Andrew Gamble |
Publisher | Duke University Press |
Pages | 280 |
Release | 1988 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 9780822308904 |
A new politics emerged in the 1970s in response to the world recession, the exhaustion of Fordism (the theory, traced to Henry Ford, that well-paid industrial workers fuel continuous capitalist growth), and the breakdown of American hegemony. Thatcherism, one expression of this new politics, acquired its distinctive characteristics through the exceptional and deep-seated crisis of state authority that developed in Britain in the mid-1970s. By 1987, the Conservatives under Thatcher's leadership had won their third successive election victory over a divided opposition and enjoyed a degree of political and ideological dominance that led many commentators to speak of the end of the socialist era and the emergence of a new consensus in Britain. A new word--Thatcherism--had entered the political lexicon. It has come to signify a broad-ranging and distinctive program aimed at promoting economic recovery through the privatization of public enterprise and restoring the authority of the state. The Free Economy and the Strong State explores the roots of Thatcherism and its relationship to the Conservative tradition, to the economic liberal ideology of the New Right, and to the "new politics" which emerged from the recession and crisis of the world order in the mid 1970s.
The First Thatcher Government, 1979-1983
Title | The First Thatcher Government, 1979-1983 PDF eBook |
Author | Martin Holmes |
Publisher | Westview Press |
Pages | 254 |
Release | 1985-07-21 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN |
Europe and the Decline of Social Democracy in Britain
Title | Europe and the Decline of Social Democracy in Britain PDF eBook |
Author | Adrian Williamson |
Publisher | Boydell Press is |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2019 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 9781783274437 |
This book explores Britain's gradual disenchantment with both social democracy and the EEC/EU, culminating in the 2016 vote for Brexit. It offers a much-needed historical perspective to the current political crisis in Britain. 2020 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award Winner Between about 1957 and 1979, British governments pursued policies loosely based on social democracy, with a strong commitment to full employment and egalitarianism. At this time, there was almost unlimited enthusiasm on the Rightof British politics for membership of the EEC. The real debate was within the British Left, and the dividing line was between socialists and social democrats. The former wished to march on towards the promised land of real socialism; the latter were broadly content with the status quo. 1975, when the nation voted by 2 to 1 to stay in the EEC, was a triumph for those who had always been passionate supporters of the European project. It was also the high water mark of the UK's commitment to social democracy. Full employment remained the central goal of macro-economic strategy, and the nation's income and wealth were more evenly distributed than ever before or since. Since thelate 1970s, social democracy in the UK has been in continuous retreat. For the Conservatives, this retreat has been headlong since the rise of Thatcherism in the mid-1970s. Under New Labour, a viable alternative model to Thatcherism was never identified. This mixture of metropolitan social liberalism and freewheeling, finance-based capitalism came unstuck in the crisis of 2007-9. The ostensibly pro-European forces thus came into the 2016 referendum campaign in a very weak state. Tories were, at best, unenthusiastic and many were hostile. Eurosceptic socialists had taken back control of Labour. The forces of social democracy, triumphant in 1975, were beleaguered. It is perhaps notsurprising that Remain lost. This book explores the nation's gradual disenchantment with both social democracy and the EEC/EU, culminating in the 2016 vote for Brexit. It tells the story of the declining fortunes of these two intertwined concepts, for which no one has yet devised any plausible successor project. ADRIAN WILLIAMSON is a QC and practicing barrister at Keating Chambers, London, an Elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society andthe author of Conservative Economic Policymaking and the Birth of Thatcherism, 1964-1979 (Palgrave, 2015).
Class, Politics, and the Decline of Deference in England, 1968-2000
Title | Class, Politics, and the Decline of Deference in England, 1968-2000 PDF eBook |
Author | Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 378 |
Release | 2018-03-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0192540726 |
In late twentieth-century England, inequality was rocketing, yet some have suggested that the politics of class was declining in significance, while others argue that class identities lost little power. Neither interpretation is satisfactory: class remained important to 'ordinary' people's narratives about social change and their own identities throughout the period 1968-2000, but in changing ways. Using self-narratives drawn from a wide range of sources - the raw materials of sociological studies, transcripts from oral history projects, Mass Observation, and autobiography - the book examines class identities and narratives of social change between 1968 and 2000, showing that by the end of the period, class was often seen as an historical identity, related to background and heritage, and that many felt strict class boundaries had blurred quite profoundly since 1945. Class snobberies 'went underground', as many people from all backgrounds began to assert that what was important was authenticity, individuality, and ordinariness. In fact, Sutcliffe-Braithwaite argues that it is more useful to understand the cultural changes of these years through the lens of the decline of deference, which transformed people's attitudes towards class, and towards politics. The study also examines the claim that Thatcher and New Labour wrote class out of politics, arguing that this simple - and highly political - narrative misses important points. Thatcher was driven by political ideology and necessity to try to dismiss the importance of class, while the New Labour project was good at listening to voters - particularly swing voters in marginal seats - and echoing back what they were increasingly saying about the blurring of class lines and the importance of ordinariness. But this did not add up to an abandonment of a majoritarian project, as New Labour reoriented their political project to emphasize using the state to empower the individual.
The making of Thatcherism
Title | The making of Thatcherism PDF eBook |
Author | Philip Begley |
Publisher | Manchester University Press |
Pages | 290 |
Release | 2020-05-15 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1526131323 |
The making of Thatcherism examines the Conservative Party’s period in opposition between 1974 and 1979, focusing on the development of key policy on issues from the economy, to immigration, to Scottish Devolution. Offering a detailed analysis of Conservative Party policy during this period, from the point at which it had last been in government to the point at which it subsequently regained power, this book helps us to understand the significance of the Conservative victory in 1979: What exactly did more than 13 million Britons vote for in May of that year? This period is typically viewed as one of dramatic change within the Conservative party; however, Begley argues that policy changes were more modest and complex than has been previously considered. Focusing on the short-term political context, Begley argues that though the roots of Thatcherism were beginning to emerge in the party, Thatcherism does not appear to have been inevitable in policy terms by 1979. Providing an overview of the intellectual, economic, and social contexts, Philip Begley examines the range of factors driving the Conservative Party’s development of policy.