What impact did the Thatcherite Governments have on active citizenship in Britain?

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What impact did the Thatcherite Governments have on active citizenship in Britain?

Allistair Short

BA Politics and Government

Year Two

What impact did the Thatcherite Governments have on active citizenship in Britain?

For the purposes of this essay the term Thatcherite government will refer to both the Margaret Thatcher government 1979-1990, and the John Major government 1990-1997. In looking at the impact of eighteen years of Thatcherite governments it is important first to look at the role of active citizens, if there was any, before 1979 as well as during the period of Tory control. I will also look at the changes in legislation and how this affected the role of the citizen and what sections of society benefited from the Thatcherite ideal of "Rolling back the state" in other words reducing government intervention in business and every day life. This approach to government has been referred to by some commentators, such as Hayek and Nozick as Neo-Liberalism.

In the post-war period 1945-1979 saw the development in Britain of not only civil and legal rights, enshrined and protected in law, but also social rights. Soldiers returning from service in the Second World War felt