Mrs Thatcher embraced the ideas of Milton Friedman and Friedrik Hayek who constituted significant writings on the New Right and a critique of Keynes. Andrew Gamble argues that the New Right policies aspired to two general aims, the free economy and the strong state. Analysis of the New Right in this way shows a move away from the traditional high-low politics split to a high-no political view. "The Conservative Party has never believed that the business of Government is the government of business." Government should either withdraw completely from certain areas or insist upon its absolute and unchecked right to govern.
According to the New Right, the state was attempting to do too much. Individuals are more capable of dealing with certain issues on their own than the state and so the state should withdraw from those spheres. Mrs Thatcher felt that it was the states role to create a broad framework in which individuals can work within, for example, in the economic sphere, the governments key was low inflationary pressures, creating trust and predictability in the economy allowing it to grow. More specific policy examples were privatisation, the signing of the Single European Act (SEA), the introduction of market principles in the public sector and the restriction of other inhibitive institutions such as the Trade Unions.
The withdrawal of state intervention allowed government to take firmer control on areas it saw as important. Strong government is firstly needed to restrain itself and other actors such as the Trade Unions from interfering in the free sphere. The strengthening of the state saw an active involvement in the areas of law and order, defence, policing and the attack on 'social' institutions such as the civil service, schools, the media and the churches.
The New Right attempted to instigate a hegemonic project. This appeared to have been attempted on three levels, these are economic reforms, institutional changes and a change in social attitudes. At the economic level, the New Right tried to put in place legislation and ideas whose logic would eventually be accepted as normal and irreversible. The best remembered is probably privatisation policy. Broadly, there are three aspects, de-nationalisation, sale of council houses, and Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT). The de-nationalisation of public companies took on broad periods in the 1980s, the first was between 1979 and 1984 where the sale of more traditionally private companies such as Amersham International and Jaguar. 1984 to 1990 saw the sale of public utilities - gas, water, electricity and telecommunications, these were much more controversial and had to overcome more resistance.
The Housing Act (1980) permitted council tenants who had been living in their homes for at least three years the right to buy the property at a discounted rate from the council. This proved very popular with the electorate but not so with local authorities who watched their best property being sold and not being replaced by new stock. Compulsory Competitive Tendering was the introduction of market principles in the public sector. It forced local authorities to accept bids for contracts to do specific work, and taking the bid which offered the lowest costs, so for example, road repairs, school meals and cleaning are done by either private companies or the council workers winning the bid. These two policies show a switch for the local council from a service provider to an overviewer is a significant break with the Consensus ideals and emphasises the individual and efficiency. It was also based on 'cornershop economics' where the accounts should be balanced and maximum efficiency striven for.
Institutional reforms principally include the 'subversive' sections of society. Gamble argues that liberal democracies are open to subversives and militants who infiltrate institutions such as the schools, the media, the unions, the churches, local authorities and the civil service. From these points, they seek to stir up discontent and create a position where they can take over. The New Rights' aim here was to stem the subversion by attacking the institutions which it infiltrated. With the exception of the Church which was ignored, all the above institutions have undergone legislative changes which have led to changes in their finances, the way they operate, and greater responsibility for their actions. For example, the trades unions pre-1979 had an enormous amount of power which was used to good effect in the Winter of Discontent. The Conservative government brought forward five significant Employment Acts (1980, 82, 88, 89, 90) and one Trades Union Act (1984). These acts significantly weakened the unions power by increasing individual rights in a union and making them financially responsible for their actions. Reaction to these acts was initially strong but was defeated by the miners strike (March 1984 - March 1985) and the Print Union Workers dispute with News International (January 1986 - February 1987). Both these cases showed the futility of striking in the face of the new legislation.
The second institutional reform example is of the Civil Service and the 'Next Steps' reforms. Seen as the biggest shake up of the Civil Service for 130 years, its aim is to become an efficient bureaucracy. Next Steps involves two main stages, the separation of the policy makers or mandarins from the bulk of the service, secondly, the delivery of the services is run as private businesses and have a large degree of autonomy from the centre. Some have argued that the Next Steps reforms have already gone past the point where they could be fully returned to the previous situation.
The third level is a change in the attitudes of the electorate. The New Right wished for their ideas to become so entrenched in the minds of the public that it would be considered the 'norm'. Gamble saw this occurring in two stages, firstly, the discrediting of the previous regime - social democracy. Secondly, the production of a coherent, wide ranging alternative which tried to correct "all the ills of society." The New Right attempted to reconstruct the norms and values of the state and the electorate and thereby become the dominating ideology or hegemony.
Mrs Thatcher left office on November 22nd 1990 and was replaced by John Major who then went on to win the next General Election in 1992. With five years now passed since the fall of Mrs Thatcher, it is possible to see what is left of her efforts whilst in power and subsequently the amount which the New Right has receded.
The first way to look at this is by seeing how much John Major has kept or changed. The forward to the 1992 Conservative Party Manifesto has a message and tone not out of line with the New Right. It states "I believe - strongly - that you, and not the government, should be in charge of your life." The continuities in Majors' governments include further de-nationalisation of companies such as British Coal, British Rail and the Post Office. They have encouraged the progression of CCT and the Next Steps reforms. They have also continued the policies of Hospital Trusts and Grant Maintained schools, placing a greater degree of autonomy in the hands of the periphery where the state feels it should not interfere. Its 'Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' stand on law and order, and the attack on social institutions such as cutting university grants and the abolition of the National Economic Development Council (NEDC) shows a continued assertion of the strong state. There has been a softening of this approach in respect of Welfare provision and Europe and the overall tone is of a more pragmatic and conciliatory government than under Thatcher. Major once told an American Audience "People with vision.... usually do more harm than good." His introduction of the citizens charter is directly at odds with the New Right as it attempts to improve public sector standards without increasing competition. His notions of a 'classless society' and 'a nation at ease with itself' goes right through the way Major chairs the cabinet. Overall it can be said that Major has tended to carry on the economic or free economy aspect of the New Right but has relented to a certain extent on the strong state.
The Labour party seems to have shifted gradually to the right since around 1987. The opposition party has embraced a number of the New Rights' policies. They have accepted the Employment and Trade Union Acts and do not intend to revoke them. They are not going to re-nationalise the public utilities but instead will attempt to regulate them in the private sector, demonstrated by the rewriting of clause four. The recent speech made by David Blunkett to the Social Market Foundation condemning Labours previous education policy and the recent situation with Harriet Harman sending her child to a Grant Maintained School may point towards a broad acceptance of selective schools or at least a move away from the comprehensive system previously advocated by Labour. The biggest test for Labour is when it comes into power, then a more detailed analysis can be done.
Both the main parties embrace a degree of the New Right and it is true to say that these policies are on the political agenda. The attempt by the New Right to create a hegemony in the general public appears less of a success. In 1987 at the height of the 'Thatcher experience', six out of ten voters were opposed to the Conservative policies. On issues such as welfare, Labour were preferred. Gallup in 1987 and MORI in 1988 showed that a significant amount of people still favoured the ides championed by the Consensus such as Full Employment and Welfare provision. A MORI poll for June 1987 shows labour with an overall majority on the three most important issues of unemployment, the Welfare state and National Health Service, whilst the Conservatives were ahead on less important matters such as Defence and Law and Order.
Ivor Crewe identifies a leftward shift of the public during Thatchers Premiership. For example, on the question of tax cuts or improved welfare provision, in 1979 "there were equal numbers of tax-cutters and service-extenders. By 1983 there were twice as many service-extenders as tax-cutters; by 1987 six times as many." Similar views were held on unemployment, seeing it as neither justifiable or inevitable, "indeed, the public turn out to be unreconstructed Keynesians." On strong state issues, the electorates' view that unemployment was largely due to circumstances, not idleness rose. Therefore the message of individualism, self reliance, the free economy and the strong state was not accepted by the public who reacted negatively to it.
From the new Rights point of view, it has not yet reached its aim of becoming a hegemony. It appears that Thatcher needed to go much further than what she did to firmly establish the agenda. The biggest failure appears to have been the failure to alter public opinion in their favour. Despite a number of policies implemented which remain in British politics are accepted as part of the main political agenda. It appears that they are there not because of an ideological view but because of practicalities, it would be too expensive and complicated to undo some of the policies implemented; the re-nationalising of the utilities or the altering back of the civil service being the most obvious. Some free economy policies have been taken on board by both the main parties, for example the recognition of the need to control inflation, but these have been done as a matter of practical individual policies and do not necessarily fit in with any other policy to create a coherent ideology.
The New Right objectives of a free economy and a strong state has left a legacy in Britain, private utilities, a reformed civil service, Quangos, CCT, curbs on inflation and so on. Those ideas and policies which do carry on tend to be broadly linked around the free economy. They do not exist out of some all encompassing ideological drive. The general public have gradually moved away from its notions, favouring a more social political agenda.
Mrs Thatcher brought to the United Kingdom an agenda based on the New Right. Thatcher was a unique individual who drew her own ideas from people such as Powell but, unlike Powell, was in a position to make the changes. The two main themes of this was the free economy and the strong state and these were attempted to be placed in British politics as a hegemony. A number of policies were implemented to create the two themes, but the demise of Thatcher has seen the fall of the New Right, some of their policies still exist but it appears that is not due to ideology but pragmatism. The biggest obstacle to hegemony is public resistance which moved leftwards during the New Rights dominance of Britain. The New Right therefore has receded considerably since the demise of Thatcher, and gradually its policies are being altered by the present government. The biggest test still remains when an opposition party gains power and it has the ability to enact change.
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