What, other than the personal beliefs of Margaret Thatcher was there to Thatcherism?
Assignment 3: Thatcherism
What, other than the personal beliefs of Margaret Thatcher was there to Thatcherism?
The main concept in the question (Thatcherism) is a very ambiguous one and as such there are no clear-cut distinctions between the constituents of the main concept contained in Margaret Thatcher personal beliefs and those outside this domain. A minimalist approach to the question would assert that the personal beliefs of Margaret Thatcher equate to Thatcherism. From this it could be concluded that the subset identified in the question contains nothing because the domains of Thatcherism and the personal beliefs of Margaret Thatcher are completely mutually inclusive.
The aforementioned approach makes the question appear absurd and demonstrates a fundamental deficiency in the understanding of Thatcherism as a term. Chambers English dictionary defines Thatcherism as ' the policies and style of government associated with Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990'. I have emphasised 'associated' in the definition because of the important way in which the word extends the domain of Thatcherism. Now ideas and policies that were identified and linked to the Thatcher governments fall within the scope of study and our visualisation of the Thatcherism Venn diagram can change. Initially we assumed the terms 'Thatcherism' and 'the personal beliefs of Margaret Thatcher' were interchangeable and that they represented the same things. The dictionary definition alters this map by making the personal beliefs of Margaret Thatcher a subset of Thatcherism but not the sole constituent.
If we consider the personal beliefs of Margaret Thatcher in more depth then it is not even necessary that they all reside within the domain of Thatcherism. The previous statement may sound perverse but if the connotations of 'associated' are explored then we could probably find personal beliefs of Margaret Thatcher that were not associated with Thatcherism.
The formalisation of the question into the language of set theory has brought useful clarity to the intended scope of the question which requests a description of a domain with two conditions; the disjunction of Margaret Thatcher's personal beliefs in union with the set of things considered Thatcherism.
The domains conceived now need to be transposed onto the real world and in order to achieve this goal the key terms must be identified. The Collins dictionary offers ' the policies of monetarism, privatisation and self-help promoted by Margaret Thatcher.' As a definition of Thatcherism, this is consistent with the Chambers definition and appears to offer a clear path to progress along in the answer. However to proceed with these definitions as my sole signposts would ignore the ambiguity and controversy linked to the term Thatcherism. Many political commentators have questioned whether Thatcherism existed as a distinct political phenomenon and therefore before I attempt to describe it I must attempt to prove it exists.
Thatcherism is problematised as a valid referent in two main ways, the first body of criticism is identified with Tony Benn. He argued that Thatcherism did not represent a distinct shift from previous Conservative practice and as such should not be granted a new term to identify it. His argument was supported by some of the actions of the Heath government between 1970 and 1974, which included trying to weaken the Trade Unions and imposing tougher market economic rules. Benn saw these actions as consistent with later policy trends under Thatcher and struggled to distinguish between the two modes of Conservative Government.
The second body of criticism is associated with Riddell, he asserted that the actions of the Thatcher Governments were not coherent enough to be granted an ideological or doctrinal tag such as Thatcherism. He believed this term gave a retrospective consistency to the policies of the Thatcher Governments that did not exist at the time. He cites legislation on trade unions, the abolition of exchange controls and the process of privatisation as policies that were in hindsight granted too large a degree of ideological congruence. In reality these policies were improvised in reaction to particular contingencies and were not part of a grand schema laid out years previously.
These critiques of Thatcherism are powerful but they do not destroy the concept, the sheer volume of media and debate on the subject suggests Thatcherism was or is real. A salient statistic can be extracted using the Google test, (typing a term into a search engine to gauge the volume of material on a particular subject) here 'Thatcherism' yields nearly one hundred times as many hits as 'Majorism' indicating that Thatcherism is a widespread term.
More direct counter arguments can be advanced against the critiques of Benn and Riddell, these include an exposition of the self-referential nature ...
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These critiques of Thatcherism are powerful but they do not destroy the concept, the sheer volume of media and debate on the subject suggests Thatcherism was or is real. A salient statistic can be extracted using the Google test, (typing a term into a search engine to gauge the volume of material on a particular subject) here 'Thatcherism' yields nearly one hundred times as many hits as 'Majorism' indicating that Thatcherism is a widespread term.
More direct counter arguments can be advanced against the critiques of Benn and Riddell, these include an exposition of the self-referential nature of their arguments.
Both Benn and Riddell set parameters themselves on what Thatcherism should and does represent. This means that many of their criticisms arise because of the definitions they have created. In particular Riddell's argument seems weak when we question why Thatcherism should be entirely or even partly coherent, if we probe Thatcherism as a term it is inherently ambiguous because so many have tried to provide a definition.
The concept of personal beliefs is also a problematic one and I shall not attempt to define them accurately because the personal beliefs of Margaret Thatcher inside Thatcherism are precisely the elements I am trying to exclude. Alternatively I will explore thought experiments that will allow a distinction to be made between her beliefs and the other constituents of Thatcherism.
The first and most obvious hypothesis to advance is that Margaret Thatcher had no personal beliefs or at least these beliefs were not manifested in the set Thatcherism. If this were true the entire set of Thatcherism could be included in the body of the answer. Momentarily this hypothesis seems plausible when we consider her Cabinet background prior to the 1975 leadership contest. The principal contender in the months before the contest was Keith Joseph, he emerged as a leading critic of the previous Heath government. His criticism focused on the interventionist Keynesian economic policy and he offered a more laissez-faire Monetarist doctrine as an alternative. He gained considerable support amongst Tory MPs and from the Spectator before committing political suicide by implying that problems of poverty could be solved by reducing the number of children low income parents gave rise to.
After this monumental faux pas Thatcher emerged as serious challenger for the leadership by adopting many of Joseph's popular ideas during her campaign. This evidence suggests that the ideas of Thatcherism could be purely a function of political opportunism with little or no correlation to Margaret Thatcher's personal beliefs. However it is equally possible that these were the beliefs of Thatcher and other factors seem to confirm this situation. In 1974 Joseph and Thatcher demonstrated their mistrust of central policy by their involvement in the creation of the Centre of Policy Studies, this body offered an alternative source of advice to the Conservative Research Department and grew to wield a large influence of Thatcherite policy. This measure combined with her strong moral tone indicates that Margaret Thatcher had personal beliefs that were instrumental in Thatcherism. Nowhere is her moral tone better expressed than in her Old Testament speech where she uttered 'The Old Testament prophets did not say 'Brothers I want a consensus "This is my faith, this is what I passionately believe. If you believe too, then come with me." '
The second experiment we can conduct is imagining the 1975 Conservative Party without Margaret Thatcher at the helm or even as a member. If we consider the possible development of Thatcherism without Thatcher we can analyse which elements were manifestations of her personal beliefs and which parts were part of a broader political trend. This experiment invokes the concept of 'Zeitgeist' by trying to imagine historical evolution without significant individuals.
Even with these mechanisms the task of separating the personal beliefs of Thatcher from the other components inside Thatcherism is a complicated and imprecise one. There will be no neat categorical division made, instead the separated distribution of items will be placed along a spectrum ranging from parts of Thatcherism largely influenced by her personal beliefs to parts of Thatcherism almost independent of her personal beliefs. The process of answering the question will be to identify the canons of Thatcherism and order them along the spectrum that was previously explained, justifying their position in the distribution. I shall begin with the canons that strongly embody her personal beliefs and cover in more detail the latter tenets, which are the items specifically requested in the question.
The characteristic of Thatcherism that relied most on Thatcher's personal beliefs were the Victorian moral standards reflected in some packages of legislation passed by the government. These moral standards demonstrated the disgust Margaret Thatcher held for the politics of permissiveness so widespread in the 1960's in Bills on homosexuality and abortion. The prime example of Thatcher's personal beliefs becoming manifest in law can be found in Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which states 'A local authority shall not
* a) intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality;
* b) promote the teaching in any maintained school the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship;'
Thatcher's distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor combined with her belief that the latter should help themselves also reiterated Victorian values and moral codes.
What makes this canon such an obvious manifestation of Thatcher's personal beliefs is the deviation it represents from previous Conservative positions on similar issues, historically they had embodied a more permissive culture classifying themselves as a party of positional rather than doctrinal conservatism. The increase in the moral content of Conservative policy can thus be seen as largely a consequence of Margaret Thatcher's personal beliefs.
The second characteristic that can also be associated with the personality of Margaret Thatcher is the strong and confrontational style of leadership Thatcherism embodies. The main components of this form of leadership were; her lead role in Cabinet, her competitive nature in Parliament, her confrontational manner and her charismatic public persona. Many of these qualities were displayed in her relationship with Nigel Lawson who was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1983 and 1989 he advocated joining the Exchange Rate Mechanism but was opposed successfully by Margaret Thatcher. Eventually their disagreement on the issue became so profound that he resigned in 1989 justifying characterisations of Thatcher as 'A lady not for turning.'
This aspect of Thatcherism can also be largely reduced to her personal beliefs because her leadership style was largely a function of her personality and because that style represented a departure from previous modes of control. Initially there was some continuity in party discipline as the Conservative Party tried to avoid internal splits, but even this central trait of Conservative leadership and discipline disappeared during the final stages of Thatcher during which numerous Cabinet Ministers resigned and there was vocal expression of discontent.
An aspect of Thatcherism that lies both inside and outside of her personal beliefs was the process of centralisation, in the former context the process could be seen as an extension of her confrontational and aggressive leadership style. This style sought to maximise her personal power base through structure and agency. She achieved the former by increasing the size and scope of the Prime Minister's office whilst concurrently downgrading the Civil service into a more managerial role. The personal motivation for the reform of the Civil Service was expressed by her desire to 'deprivilege' this entire part of government, this desire was fulfilled through measures such as the Next Steps Bill of 1987.
The trend of centralisation is also identifiable outside, as a constituent of Thatcherism and at certain points as a component of Conservatism. Lord Blake noted this in his report on the traditions of Conservatism where ' the opposition to centralisation' was a key tenet, unfortunately deviated from during the 1957-63 and 1972-4 periods.
The impact of Thatcher's personal beliefs in this area is particularly pronounced in her measures against traditional conservative institutions. She placed herself in opposition to Civil Service the BBC and the Church, all of which were generally seen as bastions of respectable conservatism. Her impact was also felt in the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1989, this initiative centralised control of education provision which had previously been the Ministerial responsibility of Thatcher. Her impact on centralisation policy in other fields may have been less pronounced, for example the Financial Management Initiative Reforms of the Civil Service incorporated sophisticated Cost Benefit Analysis procedures. Thatcher's academic and Ministerial background meant she was unlikely to have the economic acumen to devise such measures.
The next aspect of Thatcherism to be considered is its attitude towards the Unions. The objectives of Thatcherite Industrial relations policy were:
. Reduce the unions influence in the determination of policy
2. Pass legislation that could be used by employers against unions
3. Shift the balance of power on the shop floor towards management.
The manifestation of these objectives was the Trade Union Act of 1984 that required unions to hold secret ballots and the 1990 Employment Act that made unions responsible for strike action unless they specifically opposed it.
Analysis of the policy suggests little of it is directly attributable to the core beliefs of Margaret Thatcher. The legislation was motivated by the 1979 trade union militancy generally referred to as 'The Winter of discontent' and Rhodes confirms this in his report on Implementing Thatcherism by stating 'Even in late 1978, it was far from clear what the Conservatives would do in Office (with Industrial relations policy).'
Therefore the personal beliefs of Margaret Thatcher surrounding unions could not have been that powerful or a coherent Industrial relations policy would have been presented in 1978. Thus Industrial Relations policy seems an area of Thatcherism that is outside the domain of her personal beliefs.
The penultimate characteristic of Thatcherism to be considered is the process of privatisation. The aims of privatisation were to; improve efficiency, reduce government involvement, reduce the PSBR, widen share ownership and to gain political advantage. The instances of privatisation included BP in 1979, BT in 1984 and the water companies in 1989. The process of privatisation was often considered contradictory with the wider aims of Thatcherism because in order to gain management support for the measure concessions had to be made, these concessions often included promising relaxed regulatory control and a protected monopoly. Congeniality toward these sorts of monopolies seemed inconsistent with free market economic doctrine.
The process of privatisation is seen as a central element of Thatcherism yet it does not appear to be a strong personal belief of Margaret Thatcher. Privatisation was not explicitly mentioned in the 1979 Conservative Party Manifesto and there were only limited references to asset disposals in the document. Therefore we can presume that privatisation is not a core belief of Margaret Thatcher as it was a contingent development, interest in it was as Rhodes states 'for political rather than economic reasons.'
The final element of Thatcherism I will consider is Monetarism. Thatcherism included a new economic doctrine and central to this creed was a belief in the theories associated with Milton Friedman identified as Monetarism. This macro economic theory was an extension of classical economics combined with the Fischer equation that described the flow of money.
The Fischer equation states:
M = total money supply
V = velocity of circulation
P = Average Price of goods
T = Number of Transactions
Monetarism assumes that the velocity of circulation and the number of transactions are broadly fixed and thus:
P=f(M)
Prices are a function of the money supply, the acceptance of this conclusion meant that inflation could be controlled if the money supply could be controlled. The Thatcher Governments tried to achieve this by increasing the legal requirements of the Liquidity Asset Ratio for banks, this reduced the credit multiplier and consequently the money supply.
The second economic theorist associated with Thatcherism is Joseph Schumpter, his theory of creative destruction was associated with the rise in unemployment between 1979 and 1985 from 1.5m to 3.2m caused by many firms liquidating and individual entrepreneurs going bankrupt. Schumpter's theory suggested that in order for an economy to achieve long term dynamic growth there must be short-term disruption in labour and other factor markets. This disruption allows the factors of production to be allocated more efficiently in the long run and will help the economy achieve a higher rate of growth.
The economic policy of Thatcherism can be largely disassociated from the personal beliefs of Margaret Thatcher. This analysis can be performed confidently because Thatcher had no advanced formal education in Economics and may have only partially understood the intricacies of the theories. The assertion can also be supported by quotes from Gamble who stated 'Dennis Healy (an early one of Thatcher Chancellors) began the economic part of Thatcherism.' He also indicated the profound influence of Enoch Powell on Thatcherism by claiming 'Powell identified the main contours of the political project that became Thatcherism.
If a conclusion is drawn thematically we can broadly argue the economic, anti trade unionist, centralist and privatisation aspects of Thatcherism were at least in some part distinct from her personal beliefs. The belief that these were elements of Thatcherism is supported by both the dictionary definitions of the term. However the thematic division of Thatcherism is an arbitrary one and the example of the Poll Tax can prove the personal beliefs of Thatcher permeated every section of Thatcherism. In this case the beliefs of Thatcher regarding the role and finances of Local Government lead her to impose an unpopular tax that had a significant economic effect and became closely identified with Thatcherite economics.
Conversely some political commentators argue that Thatcher was not that significant in the context of the phenomenon that has been identified as Thatcherism, they cite the beliefs of Keith Joseph and Enoch Powell as evidence Thatcher was substitutable. These commentators including Benn try to reduce the personal significance of Thatcher through the concept of zeitgeist, claiming she was merely a representation of the general political trends.
This seems rather reductionist when we consider the personal attributes and power of Margaret Thatcher but does uncover a partial truth, which is that Thatcherism seems more than the sum of Thatcher's beliefs and actions. This surfeit of signifcance can be by referencing ideological and hegemonic factors in both national and international contexts. Thatcherism represented the body of ideas underpinning the New Right in Britain and was considered analogous to Reaganism in America. The significance in hegemonic terms was also great, Thatcherism represented the final dissolution of the Post War hegemonic Consensus and the attempt to replace it with a markedly different successor. Although Thatcherism never became a hegemony because it only embraced a limited portion of the electorate it still represented a significant change in political paradigm. The essence of Thatcherism was ironically best captured in an article from Marxism Today, which stated ' Thatcherism embodies a vision of economic change, a means to accomplish it, and a medium to popularise it.
