Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Political Parties and the Structural Conditions of the Economy
- 3 Supply-Side Economic Strategies from a Comparative Perspective (I): Public Investment and the Formation of Human Capital
- 4 Supply-Side Economic Strategies from a Comparative Perspective (II): The Public Business Sector and Tax Strategies
- 5 The Social Democratic Project: Macroeconomic Stability and State Intervention in Spain
- 6 The Political and Electoral Dimensions of the PSOE's Economic Strategy
- 7 Turning around the Postwar Consensus: Defining a Conservative Economic Framework in Britain
- 8 The Political and Electoral Dimensions of the Conservative Economic Strategy
- 9 Partisan Strategies and Electoral Coalitions
- 10 Conclusions
- Notes
- References
- Index
- More Titles in the Series
8 - The Political and Electoral Dimensions of the Conservative Economic Strategy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Political Parties and the Structural Conditions of the Economy
- 3 Supply-Side Economic Strategies from a Comparative Perspective (I): Public Investment and the Formation of Human Capital
- 4 Supply-Side Economic Strategies from a Comparative Perspective (II): The Public Business Sector and Tax Strategies
- 5 The Social Democratic Project: Macroeconomic Stability and State Intervention in Spain
- 6 The Political and Electoral Dimensions of the PSOE's Economic Strategy
- 7 Turning around the Postwar Consensus: Defining a Conservative Economic Framework in Britain
- 8 The Political and Electoral Dimensions of the Conservative Economic Strategy
- 9 Partisan Strategies and Electoral Coalitions
- 10 Conclusions
- Notes
- References
- Index
- More Titles in the Series
Summary
For a decade and a half, the British Conservative government engineered a radical break with the economic management practices in place during most of the postwar period. On the one hand, demand management policies coupled with a periodic resort to income pacts were replaced with tight monetary policies and fiscal discipline. The public budget was balanced by 1988 and public debt was cut in half from 1979 to 1990. Inflation went down from an average of 16 percent in 1974–79 to less than 4 percent in the early 1990s. On the other hand, the Tory cabinet engaged in a drastic overhauling of the structural conditions of the British economy. After overshooting in the early 1980s, public spending was contained and progressively reduced. Tax rates were cut to spur private savings and investment. The labor market was deregulated. Finally, the public business sector was thoroughly dismantled.
As in the case of the Spanish Socialist government, Thatcher's economic strategy must also be thought of as a political strategy – intent both on making Tory principles hegemonic and on building a stable social and electoral coalition that could maintain the Tory Party in power. In a period of increasing partisan and social dealignment, the Conservative government consciously deployed its economic strategies to secure high levels of electoral support.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Political Parties, Growth and EqualityConservative and Social Democratic Economic Strategies in the World Economy, pp. 180 - 201Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998