Thatcherism in British Politics - Essay Example

Task Thatcherism in British Politics Introduction Thatcherism describes economics, social policy, passion politics and political style of Margret Thatcher who was the prime minister of Britain during the period mentioned above. At the time of her regime, she brought changes in many aspects including; politics, revival of the economy, reforms on outdated institutions and the nation’s foreign policy. Her efforts in reviving the country saw the revival of Britain’s economy that had been rooted in the country from the time of the Second World War. The term above has also been used to describe the unadventurous nature of Margret Thatcher, her ideologies and the political culture within the government of Britain during her reign as the prime minister. The measures laid down by her continue to be in place even up to the time of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, John Major and even David Cameron. Her determination in politics and the changes that she accomplished made her be respected and be viewed as being influential in many parts of the world. She is considered one of the most dynamic and plain-spoken leaders of Britain. Ideologies of Thatcherism At the time of her election, Britain was in an economic crisis and was faced with political tumult. Most trade unions at that time had engaged in strikes, and the country was at the verge of collapsing. In fact, the country was nearly bankrupt when she got elected. Thatcher made efforts to sweep polices and laws that had been set at the time of World War II. The ideas that were proposed by Margret Thatcher can be compared to ideologies that she advocated for during her reign as prime minister. Research has shown that her ideas were not original in any way within her regime. Moreover, her ideas were not consistent within during her reign, and that she established a culture of rampant materialism within the British history. In fact, it has been identified that her policies and ideas were conservative, and she in most cases contracted herself in regard to her own values. For instances, she advocated for less government intervention in various issues, and at the same time, this required a strong state. In an effort to make changes during her reign, Margret Thatcher put forward a number of principles that would serve to guide her in task execution. For instance, she proposed and implemented reduced power of trade unions within her state (Knight, 2010, 59). This was aimed at averting strikes and related activities within Britain. The other issue was that of encouraging individuals to be entrepreneurs so that they would create employment opportunities for themselves and others. This would serve to maintain economic stability and apart from contributing to economic development and improving the living standards of those involved in business activities (Burch & Moran, 1987, 168). Thatcher’s other ideology was the issue of imposing of lower taxes than those that were prevailing within the state. This would encourage business activities and promote private investments within the state. It would also serve to encourage foreign investors, and the result would be stability in the economy and creation of employment opportunities for the citizens. In addition to the above tenets, stated that there would be reduced government interference in the daily life of people within Britain. This would serve to promote freedom to carry out activities within the state. It would also enable individuals to carry out their activities without fear of being disturbed by the government. Finally, she was for the idea of restoring national pride within Britain during her regime. This was to be achieved through having a sturdy foreign strategy and defense system. Research has confirmed that these tenets were the core components of Thatcher's ideologies within her regime that served to eliminate the gradual processes within the country. She tried to move the country rapidly in a conservative direction. This made her acquire the title of a revolutionary, conservative leader during her regime. Thatcherism may be considered to be a radical departure from traditional conservation in the history of Britain. For instance, the prime minister defended her policies by saying that Britain must be strong and should defend herself against any attacks from foreigners (Pierson, 1997, 16). In addition to this, it should enforce the rule of law and its sense of national identity. However, she stressed that the state would not meddle in the activities of its citizens. Her regime succeeded in shifting British foreign policy and encouraged broad international trends of the country. This resulted to growth of free markets and improvement in political and economic freedom. Economies associated with Thatcher Thatcherism has been associated with monetarism theory within the state of Britain. In the aspect of monetarism, priority was placed on controlling inflation over aspects that looked at creating employment opportunities for the citizens. Some of the actions taken to control inflation included reduction on public spending and selling off shares owned by the government. One of the reforms done by Thatcher was on domestic rates within the state at the time of her election. Issues that concerned domestic rates had been identified by the conservative and the labor governments from the time the Second World War ended. The previous governments had failed to institute, measures that would solve the situation. In fact, those involved never wanted to take risks. In the year, 1989 and 1990 reforms on this issue were facilitated by Thatcher. The action taken by her was faced with many challenges among them opposition from those in government (Atkinson & Wilks-Heeg, 2000, 106). There were about four taxes that would come into place including; poll tax, property tax, Local tax and local income taxes. However, two taxes were first to be implemented, and they included poll taxes and council taxes. As a result of the changes that were established during Thatcher’s regime, the local government has since had the least financial freedom within the European region. The conservative government during its regime tried to put measures in place that would limit the local authorities’ access to financial resources. The local authorities fought back by having to involve private firms that assisted them in carrying out their projects. The local government had achieved its mission of imposing its will on the local authority. However, this was not an easy task because it was attained political and financial costs. Thatcherism made efforts to promote low inflation and free markets by applying tight controls that related to money supply. Similar efforts were also made towards privatization and constraints on the labor movement. In addition to free markets, small estates were also to be put in place. Therefore, Thatcherism would be compared to classical liberalization within Britain during the regime of Thatcher. She believed that inflation involved printing money in large amounts and this would be controlled by putting restrictions on the money supply within the state. In addition to this aspect, she supported the views of monetarists that in attaining efficiency, taxation was to be kept low within the state. She also advocated for privatization of the industries that were controlled by the state (Cottret & Mioche, 2004, 118). She also devices measures that ensured that free market forces were allowed to exert their effect on the economy of Britain. She believed in individual spending and was sure that genuine and hardworking Britons would be successful in their work. To implement the above idea, she set measures that saw the cutting back of welfare spending by her government. She also failed to prop up ailing industries because she feared that such a step would lead to unemployment within Britain. According to her, it was the trade unions that caused cases of unemployment and not the state as many people thought. It was because of the high demands for wages by the trade unions that caused members in working areas to be thrown out of those industries. She defeated the 1984-1985 miners’ strike that curbed the powers of the trade unions (Plug, 1994, 43). Thatcher was not ready to let Britain decline in terms of economy. In fact, she wanted to reverse the economy that was on the decline. In addition to this, she was against issues that were related to communism within her state (Pepper & Oliver, 2001, 12). Radical break would be defined as making an overhaul of an existing system and putting a new system in place. In the context of this article, this would be compared to adapting of the new system within Britain. This was facilitated be the election of Margret Thatcher as the prime minister of Britain. She came up with many innovative changes such as the restriction of access to money, elimination of collectivism, reforms on rates, privatization of industries and even reduction on money spent on the public development. For instance, Thatcher privatized many industries within Britain starting with British telecom. As the prime minister, her main aim was to change dependent Britain to a self reliant nation. Some of her policies like encouraging self employment may be termed as responsible and would rust for a long time. In addition, issues like likes controlling inflation and elimination of communism served to develop Britain in the long term. Other issues such as having a strong defense states and letting markets do their businesses led by forces of demand would be beneficial to Britain. Here, prices were to be controlled by forces within the market and the government did not involve itself in controlling prices. Privatization of the Britain industry would ensure that the Britons received better and quality services than before. This would be in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. On the other hand, some issues such as reducing expenditure on public projects serve to pull Britain back. Moreover, she may have instituted measures that she was unable to control, and she may have interfered with them (Columbus, 2001, 85). An excellent example that would be given in this sector is the reduction of taxes on people’s income. This meant that those who earned more money than others, they were subjected to the same tax rates as those who earned low amounts. In addition to this, corporate taxes were reduced within the state enabling businesses to make huge profits from their activities. This enabled the rich to continue making more money than the poor and amass wealth. This was also supported by the industry sector that employed many people and gave them low wages as payment. Increased income would be taxed in a friendly manner. More industries were created during this period leading to the wealthy people employing a large work force. This served to eradicate unemployment within Britain and people improved their living standards. Her success would be reflected in privatization of companies and shifting of power from the local governments to individuals. This was in buying council owned houses at discounted rates from the council, and this was a positive issue to the citizens (Peacock, 1999, 79). As the prime minister, Thatcher was motivated by the urge to change from the conventional system. Therefore, there was a need for change and establishment of measures that would facilitate the changes identified. However, with time, people will be able to speak out their minds on the reforms that were put forward by Thatcher. She came up with measures that saw the implementation of many changes during her time. Some were negative, whereas some were positive. Therefore, it is the only time that can tell whether she would be remembered for implementing constructive changes or she would be termed as being a conservative leader. For instance, the former Defence Secretary, John Nott, noted that her capitalism was in line with old fashioned conventional political institutions. For instance her regime did not challenge the monarchy and the House of Lords. She only made changes that mostly touched on trade unions within Britain. For instance, she joined the House of Lords unlike Gladstone who was also at the same position. Some critics have confirmed that Thatcherism was achieved at the expense of high cost to the citizen of Britain. For instance, increased level of unemployment was due to the fall of industrial production during her reign. At the time of her resignation, about 30% of children in Britain were considered to be below the poverty line. The above mentioned poverty level continued to rise up to the time of John Major. In as much as she achieved in the political arena and made changes within England, she is also blamed for the rise in level of poverty within her time of reign. Works Cited Atkinson, H. P., & Wilks-Heeg, S. (2000), Local government from Thatcher to Blair: the politics of creative autonomy, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Burch, M., & Moran, M. (1987), British politics: A reader, Manchester: Manchester University Press. Columbus, F., H. (2001), Politics and economics of Latin America. Huntington, N.Y.: Nova Science Publishers. Cottret, B., Hearn, M., & Mioche, A. (2004), Manuel de civilisation britannique, Rosny-sous- Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis): Bre?al. Knight, J. (2010), British politics for dummies, Chichester: John Wiley. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=496070 Peacock, D., K. (1999), Thatcher's theatre: British theatre and drama in the eighties, Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. Pepper, G. T., & Oliver, M., J. (2001), Monetarism under Thatcher: lessons for the future, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Pierson, P. (1997), Dismantling the welfare state? Reagan, Thatcher, and the politics of retrenchment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Plug, M. (1994) 'The Era of Thatcherism' in state and society: British political and social history, 1870-1992, Hodder, London. Read More