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M argaret T hatcher, the T hatcherite intellectuals and the fate of K eynes
Author(s) -
Trumpbour John
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
industrial relations journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.525
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 1468-2338
pISSN - 0019-8692
DOI - 10.1111/irj.12057
Subject(s) - allegiance , state (computer science) , politics , political science , law , algorithm , computer science
In the early 1970s, major political leaders of the centre‐right such as R ichard M . N ixon proudly declared their allegiance to the K eynesian consensus and the welfare state. By the mid‐1970s, this consensus unravelled so rapidly that even the leader of B ritain's Labour Party came to regard K eynesian medicine as ineffectual. Seeking to demolish several foundations of the K eynesian welfare state, T hatcherism soon attracted economists and policy pundits eager to defend its achievements, including in N orth A merica at such bygone hotbeds of K eynesianism as H arvard U niversity. This essay seeks to probe cherished mythologies of T hatcherism that she restored B ritain's economic dynamism, streamlined government and revived plucky entrepreneurship. Her intellectual admirers have largely averted their eyes from law‐and‐order repression and the rewards delivered to politically connected insiders, most dramatically those policies unleashing finance capitalists and extending the tentacles of the M urdoch media empire.