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Recommended: Essays on thatcherism
During the ‘70s Margaret Thatcher used neoliberalism and a tendency toward free-market economy to help her country.Thatcher was a leader of the Conservative party leader who valued neoliberalism.When the U.K. is in a period of recession they have a tendency to swing right and go toward privatization and market economies. When the Labour party has control of the government there is a swing left and there tends to be more nationalization of industry.When situations start to get better the governments start to go toward a central alternative. In the spring of 2009, The Daily Telegraph showed expense reports on all of the parliamentary leaders showing a lack of transparency between the citizens and the state.
The reports showed that the MPs
Margret Thatcher was Great Britain’s first female prime minister who served three consecutive terms in office. She was also one of the dominant political figures of 20th century Britain. According to the BBC, Margret Thatcher changed the British country during her time in the office; in fact, she reduced the influence of trade unions, scaled back public benefits, privatized certain industries and changed the terms of political debate . However, the news of Margaret Thatcher’s death in 2013 was met a mixture of sadness and rejoicing by the British people. Why was Thatcher respected by some, but hated by others?
Margaret Hilda Thatcher was Britain’s first female Prime Minister, leading England for almost eleven years. Nicknamed “ The Iron Lady” associated with her inflexible politics and strong mind , she had created policies that are now know to be called “Thatcherism.”Born on October 13,1925 in Grantham, England, Margaret grew up in a conservative home into a family of grocers and was introduced to politics through her father who was a local businessman and a member of the town council. Margaret married Denis Thatcher in 1951 and a year later welcomed their twins Carol and Mark Thatcher .
The conservative approach to state intervention post 1979 has been on the whole to go for the minimum as is illustrated in their economic policy and this was included in their critique of government economic policy at that time. On the whole the government felt that levels of state intervention were far too high in regards to the economy which led to various negative consequences such as making industry uncompetitive and laid back since the government would bail them out at the first sign of smoke as Labour always did. They also felt it destroyed the incentives for individual entrepreneurship leading people into not achieving their full potential as it was not worth there while, this led to lack of money within the economy as well as top businessmen leaving for pastures new. On the whole Thatcher was a strong advocate of believing regulation by the state should be minimised as it had a large amount of control over things like wages, prices, profits and production systems which was thought to stifle business expansion. Most regulation was in nationalised industries and the way this problem was solved was through privatisation which was a major step towards reducing state intervention in the economy. This was passing major sections of the economy that were state run onto the private sector, although it did contain advantages such as managers pursuing profits it was primarily the disengagement of the state that was at the heart of “Thatcherism”, and this policy was indeed rather Thatcheresque. Classical economics believed state interference was negative and Thatcher considered herself as a modern heir to this classical view. Of course privatisation was a trend that continued beyond the 1980’s and with New Labour who converted to it b...
After Ronald Reagan was voted into office in January of 1981, he had this vision of a new government. It was called Reaganomics. There were four points to Reagan's plan which included; reduce government spending, cut federal income tax, reduce government regulation, and to control the money supply in order to reduce spending. He also had a program he called the Reagan Revolution which was geared toward making the people of America less reliant on the government. I think Reaganomics was a good idea in theory because reducing deficits and cutting back taxes always seems like a great idea. There just always seems to be something else that goes wrong to make it all collapse.
Due to a conglomerate of factors at work in the 1960s there was a growing sense among the American white working class that they would ultimately be completely left out of an ever-evolving, ever-changing America, come the end of the 1970s. Some of the aforementioned factors, namely, are the Civil Rights movements, the economic shifts brought on by political policy changes, and the ever-present controversy surrounding the ongoing Vietnam War. The issue of Civil Rights, and for example, integration, was incredible polarizing in that it caused a great divide and debate among many American demographics. Economically, America was reacting to the effects of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency with the growing impact of policies such as welfare, and
Thatcher is considered to be one of the most controversial figures in modern British politics and remains the only 20th century Prime Minister to give her name to an ideology. There has never been a clear consensus on the meaning of Thatcherism and it has been used to describe a vast array of ideas. Nigel Lawson, who claims to have invented the term, describes it as ‘a mixture of free markets, financial discipline, firm control over public expenditure, tax cuts, nationalism, ‘Victorian values’…, privatisation and a dash of populism’. Broadly, it can be argued that the main feature of Thatcherism was its opposition to the policies of the ‘post-war consensus’. Both supporters and opponents of Thatcher have created a pattern from disconnected
Margaret Thatcher was Britain's first female Prime Minister. She had served three consecutive terms in office May 4, 1979—28, November 1990. Margaret Thatcher’s economic and social policies have evolved into a political philosophy and is called Thatcherism. Worldwide she is known as an “Iron Lady”-- nickname that she proudly claimed.
...more of a Keynesian thinker more than a new classical thinker. Although it might be true that having free market is the right way of having a stabled economy, but unemployment will still be high and might be increasing which is still till now one of the troublesome that governments face today. Plus, what happens if recession hits or even worse we go back to 1930’s where there was the great depression, it was proved then and will be proved again if happened that the only way to solve a sort of crises is by government intervention (basically spending). Yes it will increase inflation but creates more job opportunities and unemployment will decrease if government intervention occurs. Yes in the long run this might be bad but people care about tomorrow more than they care about 3 or 4 years from now or even more. As Lord Keynes once said “in the long run we are all dead”
The political shifts in American history during the last two centuries are often explained by Arthur Schlesinger's cyclical explanation of eras of public purpose followed by private interest. What is considered liberal versus what is considered conservative shifts in a similar pattern. While laissez-faire policies are considered liberal in the Roaring 20's, the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 quickly changed America's view of liberalism. Suddenly, the small government politics of Hoover were conservative and the progressive politics of Roosevelt were considered liberal. Thus, because the Great Depression quickly changed America's view of liberalism, Roosevelt can be considered a liberal and Hoover a conservative, despite occasionally supporting similar policies.
To transition is to change and enter into a state of newness. During the end of the twentieth century, both America and Britain, the North Atlantic sphere, entered into a transitional period of embracing and implementing a free market capitalist system. The free market system focused on, “individualism, hard work, and the importance of family in meeting the daily needs of life” . This was a transition from heavy government involvement and state planning to one that encouraged competition and individual growth. This transition to a new system for both the United States and Britain was heavily influenced by four major factors: economic, social, political, and culture. Although these four factors were different there was a commonality between them that kept them connected. The connecting point of these factors was the desire for dominance.
Thatcher and Thatcherism It is now twenty years since Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of Great Britain, and over eight years since she left office. So this seems a good opportunity to look back at what Thatcher and Thatcherism may have achieved, and what may be the lessons for today. I must start with a disclaimer. I'm the British High Commissioner and normally speak on behalf of the British Government in Australia.
Neoliberalism, also called free market economy, is a set of economic policies that became widespread in the last 25 years. The concept neoliberalism, have been imposed by financial institutions that fall under the Bretton Woods such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Bank (Martinez & Garcia, 1996). One of the famous economists published a book called “The Wealth of Nations” in which he said in it that free trade is the best way to develop nations economies (Martinez & Garcia, 1996). He and other economists also encouraged the removal of government intervention in economic matters, no restrictions on manufacturing, removing borders and barriers between nations, and no taxes (Martinez & Garcia, 1996). The main goal of the economic globalization was to reduce poverty and inequality in the poorest regions. However, the effects of the neoliberal policies on people all over the world has been devastating (MIT, 2000).
The Thatcherism ideology was part of the establishment of privatisation, cutting off the taxes and reducing public expenditure in health and care services in order to improve Britain’s economy, as a consequence more than 50 identities were privatised by
In 1997 the political party New Labour came in to power and one of the main
Her polices were that of Neo Liberal economic ideas, latterly to be known as Thatcherism. Her three successive terms in power have proved to be a pivotal moment in political and economic history of Britain, shifting the political spectrum to be focused around a new Neo-Liberal centre. With the creation of New Labour evolving out of this period in reaction, Thatcher herself stated this was her greatest achievement, as it proved that the political spectrum in the United Kingdom had indeed shifted. With regards to housing, this