GRG23 / VBS Draschestrae 90-92, A-1230 Wien Unterrichtsjahr 2011/2012 Fachbereichsarbeit in Geographie und Wirtschaftskunde

Verfasser: Leander C. Seidl Betreuungslehrer: Mag. Christopher Hanacek-Schubert MAS MAIS Abgabedatum: 17.2.2012

Erklrung

Ich erklre hiermit eidesstattlich, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit eigenstndig und nur unter Verwendung der angefhrten Hilfsmittel verfasst habe.

Wien, am 17. Februar 2012

Leander C. Seidl

Contents
1. Preamble...................................................................................................... 4 2. Introduction ................................................................................................. 5 2. 1. Brief Biography and Summary of Margaret Thatchers Term in Office .... 5 2.2. The British Economy in the late 1970s and the Winter of Discontent .... 6 2.3. Margaret Thatchers Ideology ................................................................ 8 2.3.1. Neoliberalism................................................................................... 8 2.3.2. Monetarism ..................................................................................... 9 3. Thatchers Economic Policy ........................................................................ 11 3.1. Tax and Monetary Policy ........................................................................ 11 3.2. Reform of Social Services and Education ................................................ 13 3.3. Privatisation and Deregulation ............................................................... 17 3.4. Relationship with Unions........................................................................ 19 4. The Influence of Thatcherism on British Politics in Recent Years................ 21 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................. 23 6. Abstract ..................................................................................................... 25 7. List of Sources ............................................................................................ 27 8. Work Log .................................................................................................... 33

1. Preamble
When discussing the most influential political leaders of the late 20th century, only few choose not to mention the former British PM Margaret Thatcher. No matter whether she is praised as a conservative heroine or regarded as a nemesis by followers of a more socialist ideology, almost everyone who talks about her has an opinion on the woman that is frequently referred to as the Iron Lady. It is also for that reason that I already had a very vague general idea of what her policy consisted of. Since I had wanted to find out more about her for years, the decision of making Thatcherism and its influence on todays politics the topic of my FBA was easily made. Work on this paper has not only given me a lot of knowledge on Thatcherism itself, but also helped me gain an insight on unique aspects of the British economic and political system. For example, I did not know about the complex structure behind the British healthcare and school systems. Apart from the new things I learned through research on the topic, I also got valuable insights into the amount of time, effort and determination that is required in order to complete a pre-scientific paper. Therefore I believe that choosing to write this work was a highly beneficial experience for me which I will very probably be able to draw upon in the future. Finally, I would like to thank my supervising teacher, Mag. Christopher HanacekSchubert for his continued support and advice during my work on the FBA, which helped me to overcome initial difficulties. I hope that my work makes for an interesting read and I hope that you, the reader, are able to gain a deeper understanding of Margaret Thatchers economic policy, the implications of it beyond her term and the British economy in general.

2. Introduction
2. 1. Brief Biography and Summary of Margaret Thatchers Term in Office
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, ne Roberts was born on October 13, 1925 in Grantham, as the daughter of a businessman who was engaged in local politics. She was a successful student during her time in primary and secondary education, allowing her to get into a grammar school and be accepted at the University of Oxford after graduating. While studying chemistry at Oxford from 1943 to 1947 she emerged as a strong supporter of conservatism and after having received her degree, she ran for a seat in parliament in both the general elections of both 1950 and 1951. While her attempts were unsuccessful, her speeches earned respect from many conservative politicians and during her campaigns she met her future husband, Daniel Thatcher. In 1959, Margaret Thatcher finally managed to win a seat in Parliament and in 1961 she became the undersecretary for pensions and national insurance. 1 2 3 Between 1964 and 1970, while Labour was in power, Thatcher was part of the shadow cabinet and once the Conservative Party had won the election of 1970 she became Secretary of State for Education under PM Edward Heath. It was in this office that she first came to the attention of the general public when she abolished the practice of free milk at school for all children below the age of 12. The Heath government was all in all not well received, and the 1974 elections brought about a new government led by Labour. The next year, Thatcher decided to challenge Heaths leadership of the Conservative party, which to her own surprise was successful. She spent four years as leader of the opposition before she successfully called for a vote of no confidence in the Labour government and won the ensuing general elections of 1979, entering office as the first female Prime Minister in Britain on May 4, 1979. She remained in power for more than a decade, winning the elections of 1983 and 1987 until having to resign in 1990.1 2 3 Apart from her economic policy, which will be analysed in the third chapter of this work, some other noteworthy elements of her time as Prime Minister were her foreign policy and her refusal to meet the demands of the Irish Republican Army, which led to a hotel she was staying at being bombed in 1984, killing 5 people but leaving Thatcher unharmed. She was on friendly terms with US president Ronald Reagan, with whom she shared many economic ideas Thatcherism and Reaganomics are often mentioned together and a dislike for communist regimes. Her criticism of communism also lead to a soviet newspaper creating the nickname Iron Lady, by which she is still referred to today. 4 Often considered the most
1 2

http://www.margaretthatcher.org/essential/biography.asp - accessed on February 3, 2012 http://www.biography.com/people/margaret-thatcher-9504796 - accessed on February 3, 2012 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher - accessed on February 3, 2012 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Lady - accessed on February 3, 2012

famous part of her foreign policy is her reaction to the invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina's Military Junta in April 1982. When a diplomatic solution failed, she did not decide to abandon the territories as many experts would have expected, but ordered a military intervention to retake the islands which was successful by June 1982.5 Because Britain was still suffering from the effects of a recession and her economic measures were not well received by many citizens, many analysts argue that without her victory against Argentine, she would not have been able to win the elections in 1983. Her decision for war was mostly well received by the public and analysts, with only a few criticising the choice as being too extreme, as it caused a few hundred deaths on both sides. 1 2 3 The end of Thatchers time as British PM came during her third term, in November 1990. Her scepticism against integrating Britain further into the European community, her determined style of leadership and her refusal to back away from the heavily criticised community charges were some of the elements that lead to poor poll results for the Conservative Party and disgruntled many of its members. Her party leadership was challenged by Michael Heseltine, and while she narrowly won the first vote, a second ballot had to be held. At first determined to win this ballot, she saw no other choice than to resign the next day, November 28 1990, when many members of her cabinet renounced their support of her, stating their belief that she would not be able to win another election. The Conservative party ended up electing John Major as her successor - who was described by the media as being the protg of the resigning PM when he took office - and Margaret Thatchers career as a politician ended with the general elections of 1992, when she did not run again for a seat in parliament. 1 3 6

2.2.

The British Economy in the late 1970s and the Winter of Discontent

The government preceding Thatchers rule was led by the Labour Party under Harold Wilson from 1974 until 1976, when he stepped down and James Callaghan took over. Callahan remained PM until a vote of no confidence and the following elections in 1979. During its rule, the Labour government was faced with problems of the British economy. While in the early 1970s, the end of the Bretton Woods monetary system combined with a sharp increase of energy prices led economies all over the world into economic problems or even recession, this development was especially visible in Britain. Its economy entered a state that was labelled Stagflation economic growth stagnated while unemployment and inflation were on the rise. Inflation in Britain reached a peak level in 1975, being as large as 24.2%. Since the number of people out of work was still going up, as was the budget deficit, the
5

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/themargaretthatcheryears/1895880/Margaret-Thatcher-andthe-Falklands.html - accessed on February 3, 2012 6 http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-28/news/mn-4907_1_john-major - accessed on February 3, 2012

government was eventually left with no other choice but to take out a loan of 2.3 billion pounds from the International Monetary Fund in September 1976. This decision was particularly difficult to make, since it was the first time that a developed western county asked the IMF for financial aid. In return, it was demanded of Britain that it deeply cut its public spending, which led to strong debates within the Labour Party. The measures however did prove to be successful in reducing inflation, which was down to 8.3% by 1978. 7
8 9 10 11

Meanwhile, as another measure against inflation, the Social Contract was introduced in 1975, an informal agreement between the government and the British trade unions which should limit new wage settlements to once a year in order to allow for a safer planning of budgets.12 The unions tolerated this agreement, realising the problematic state of Britains economy and when inflation numbers got better in 1977, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey announced that in the following year, collective bargaining would return in its traditional form. However, in the summer of 1978, Healey went back on this announcement and set a guideline that limited pay increases to 5% for the next year.12 The unions were outraged by this change in policy, and began a series of strikes known as the Winter of Discontent that lasted until February 1979. Among those laying down work were truck drivers, waste collectors, gravediggers and ancillary workers of the National Health Service. These strikes led to chaotic circumstances in parts of Britain, waste piling up in some cities and patients being unable to enter hospitals due to protests being held in front of them. The result was a strong loss of support for the Labour Party, being one of the main reasons why it lost to Thatchers Conservatives in the following election .13 14 15 By the time Thatcher was sworn into office, inflation had risen to 13.4% again, the unions had demonstrated their power over the government and the way many sectors of the British industry worked was considered inefficient by Thatcher and her followers, which set the stage for parts of the economic programme she implemented.16 17

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/sterling-devalued-imf-loan.htm - accessed on February 10, 2012 8 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/present_timeline_noflash.shtml - accessed on February 10, 2012 9 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4553464.stm - accessed on February 10, 2012 10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagflation - accessed on February 10, 2012 11 http://safalra.com/other/historical-uk-inflation-price-conversion/ - accessed on February 10, 2012 12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Contract_%28Britain%29 - accessed on February 10, 2012 13 http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/22/newsid_2506000/2506715.stm - accessed on February 10, 2012 14 http://econ.economicshelp.org/2010/02/economy-of-1970s.html - - accessed on February 10, 2012 15 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3067563.stm - accessed on February 10, 2012 16 http://safalra.com/other/historical-uk-inflation-price-conversion - accessed on February 10, 2012 17 http://www.economicshelp.org/2010/02/thatcher-revolution-1980s.html - accessed on February 10, 2012

2.3.

Margaret Thatchers Ideology

2.3.1. Neoliberalism

Margaret Thatchers policy today is often described as being neoliberal, and for some, neoliberalism and Thatcherism can in fact be seen as synonyms.18 There are many different definitions of what neoliberalism constitutes, varying from continent to continent and according to the general perspective of the analyst.19 Most economists however, agree that neoliberalism, in the form that is present in Europe and North America, originated from traditional Liberalism, which became a common school of thought in Europe around the end of the 18th century, promoting less interference of the state in the individual`s decisions and aiming towards a state in which decisions are made not in order to follow a certain goal, but solely as consequences of the processes that occur.19 20 Today, the term Liberalism, like neoliberalism, is used in a multitude of ways, with the existence of political liberalism, which is frequently used analogous to the word progressive in the USA, and economic liberalism on which neoliberalism is based.21 The term neoliberalism was first introduced in the 1930s and was defined in great detail after the Second World War by the Austrian economist Friedrich August von Hayek. He follows the Liberal assumption that the order of the economy is only a consequence of spontaneous processes and comes to the conclusion that the economy works best when it does not follow a set plan or regulations given by the government.22 The main goal of neoliberalism is therefore to reduce and finally abolish any state involvement and regulation of the free market, which is supposed to lead to an economy that by means of more competition and flexibility achieves higher profits and efficiency. Because it is very dependent on market demands, the economy should be able to regulate itself, with as little legislation by the state as possible.23 Neoliberalism is often contrasted with the economic beliefs that were first postulated to a broad audience by John Maynard Keynes. The followers of his ideology strongly support the government taking an active part in the economy, believing that when the public sector invests money in new projects in times of recession, the economy is more likely to recover.24 With Thatcher in Great Britain and Ronald Reagan in the USA being the leaders who first introduced a neoliberal agenda, it has been one of the main ideologies in global economics
18 19

http://aussieinnovation.com/content/how-neoliberal-was-margaret-thatcher - accessed on February 6, 2012 http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/neoliberalism.html - accessed on February 6, 2012 20 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism#French_Revolution - accessed on February 6, 2012 21 http://www.globalissues.org/article/39/a-primer-on-neoliberalism#PoliticalversusEconomicLiberalism accessed on February 6, 2012 22 http://www.khbrodbeck.homepage.t-online.de/neolib.htm - accessed on February 6, 2012 23 http://www.globalissues.org/article/39/a-primer-on-neoliberalism#Neoliberalismis - accessed on February 6, 2012 24 http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-keynesian-economics.htm

ever since. Elizabeth Martinez and Arnoldo Garcia, activists for the NGO National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, believe among many other critics that the benefits of neoliberal reforms only arrive at companies and members of the upper class, while workers suffer from great disadvantages. They argue that companies have less legal requirements to fulfill certain standards regarding the treatment of their employees and that less state involvement will also lead to a reduction of public social services. While the latter would in itself not be a great problem for individuals with sufficient wealth, members of the working class would be faced with great difficulties.25 Other critics also see neoliberalism, with its belief in a self-regulating economy, as one of the causes for the financial crisis that started in 2007. As the journalist Anup Shah mentions in an article, even Alan Greenspan, former head of the US Federal Reserve, who was known to be a supporter of neoliberal ideology, admitted that he found a flaw in the model that I [Greenspan] perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works, so to speak.26

2.3.2. Monetarism

Another key part of Thatchers economic policy was her belief in monetarism. The main proposition of Monetarism, which to a great extent was shaped by the American economist Milton Friedman, is that money supply is the main factor in determining the national output in the short term and the level of inflation in the long term. He comes to this conclusion by interpreting the equation of exchange - which is considered valid by most economists, regardless of their stance on monetarism in a way that assumes that the amount of times money changes hands per year is almost the same every year. Through this assumption, which is doubted by critics of monetarism, especially those who rather believe in a Keynesian approach, monetarists believe that money supply will either change the price level or the amount of goods produced each year. Therefore, monetarists argue that controlling the amount of new money printed by a government should be its main tool to ensure a stable economy, rather than using fiscal policies. This stance is also caused by the fact that monetarism, similar to neoliberalism, aims towards a free market with as little government involvement as possible, since its followers fear that government intervention is more likely to worsen the state of the economy.27 28 29 According to Friedmans theory, the ideal monetary policy is having the rate of money supply steadily rise each year, since this will lead to steady economic growth and prevent high
25

http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376 - accessed on February 6, 2012 http://www.globalissues.org/article/39/a-primer-onneoliberalism#GoingbustTheGlobalFinancialCrisisShakesConfidence - accessed on February 6, 2012 27 http://www.econweb.com/MacroWelcome/monetarism/notes.html - accessed on February 9, 2012 28 http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monetarism.asp#axzz1lv65TBRl - accessed on February 9, 2012 29 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/389146/monetarism - accessed on February 9, 2012
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inflation. However, this interpretation of monetarism proved to be less successful than expected during the early 1980s when it was most popular, and the direct link between monetary supply and economic growth rates is doubted by many economists today. 30

30

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monetarism.asp#axzz1lv65TBRl - accessed on February 6, 2012

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3. Thatchers Economic Policy

3.1. Tax and Monetary Policy
Margaret Thatchers time as Prime Minister is frequently associated with remembered for massive tax cuts. However, as economist Bruce Bartlett points out in an article for the New York Times, this is actually not the case, as for the first seven years of Thatchers government, the total amount of taxes as a percentage of the GDP actually rose, only declining in the final years of her leadership and still being higher when she left office than at the time of her inauguration.31 Thatchers changes to the tax system show characteristics of her neoliberal ideology: she believed in the reduction of direct taxes, such as the progressive income tax, since they, in her opinion, reduce peoples incentive to work harder, while supporting an increase of indirect taxes like the VAT and other consumption taxes.32 The earliest tax reforms, made in her very first year as Prime Minister, therefore reduced the maximum rate of the personal income tax from 83% to 60% and its base rate from 33% to 30%, meanwhile increasing the value-added tax from 8% to 15% as well as the motor fuel tax and the national insurance contributions that were mandatory for every British Citizen.32 This lead to critique that continued throughout her term in office, which said that through her changes to the taxation system, she shifted the burden from the rich towards the middle class and poor, who were mainly affected by the increase of indirect taxes.33 Thatcher nonetheless continued this policy, increasing both direct income taxes and indirect consumption taxes in 1981 in order to fight the countrys deficit and steer against rising inflation numbers. The level of indirect taxes was kept high throughout the 1980s while the government returned to its policy of cuts on income taxes in the following years. In the budget of 1988, the highest rate of the income tax was lowered to 40%, the basic rate was set to 25%.33 34 35 One of Margaret Thatchers most frequently debated changes to British tax law was the introduction of the community charge in the years 1988 to 1990. This tax was introduced in order to partially fund the services provided by local governments and replaced the system of rates. Rates were collected from every homeowner and were based on the value of their property, and since it had been in effect in a similar form since the 17th century and required regular revaluation of properties which in turn led to much administrative work, it was

31

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/the-legend-of-margaret-thatcher/ - accessed on February 8, 2012 32 http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sp/changhyun/ThatcherPolicies4.html - accessed on February 8, 2012 33 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_taxation_in_the_United_Kingdom#20th_century - accessed on February 8, 2012 34 http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111449 - accessed on February 8, 2012 35 http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/income-tax - accessed on February 8, 2012

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considered outdated by Thatcher.36 37 The new community charge, which is often referred to as poll tax was no longer based on the value of each property, instead using a flat-tax model according to which every citizen had to pay the amount set by the regional authority. The only exceptions were students and the unemployed, who had to pay 20% of the set tax. Not only did the introduction of the community charge lead to new administrative problems since the records of who lived in which household were disorganized in many parts of Britain but they also led to mass protests throughout Britain, since many parts of the public saw the new tax as yet another shift of financial burdens from richer citizens, who had to pay higher charges under the system of rates due to the larger value of their property, to the average people, who often had to pay significantly larger amounts into the poll tax regime.37 38 Protests demanding to bring back the old system were held all over Britain in 1990 and finally culminated in the violent protests at Londons Trafalgar Square on March 31 that are today known as the Poll Tax Riots and led to more than a hundred people being injured and many more being arrested. Thatcher still remained stern on introducing the community charge, in spite of critique arising even from her own party, and this determination to bring about a reform that is that unpopular is often cited as one of the reasons leading to the challenge of her leadership of the conservative party followed by her resignation in November of the same year.38 39 The practice of community charges did not stay in place for a long time; it was replaced under her successor John Major in 1993 by the council tax, a system similar to rates, based on the value of residential property.40 41 Thatchers policy on the supply of money and interest rates was marked by the fight against inflation during the first years in office. Following her monetarist ideology (see chapter 2.3.2.), she mainly tried to reduce it by setting fixed goals for the amount of new money printed while also increasing the interest rates in Britain. While these measures were successful in reducing inflation, some critics believe that they impeded the growth of the economy and eventually led to the recession that hit Britain from 1980 to 1982. During her later years in office, the Prime Minister came to the conclusion that monetary targets were becoming harder to achieve in the increasingly deregulated economy of Great Britain and replaced it with a new policy of exchange rate targets. This move was again criticised by some economists who believed that setting the goal of three D-Mark for one pound was the main cause that inflation numbers began to rise again in the second half of the 1980s.42 43 44

36 37

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rates_%28tax%29#United_Kingdom - accessed on February 8, 2012 http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/14/newsid_2495000/2495911.stm - accessed on February 8, 2012 38 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Charge - accessed on February 8, 2012 39 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8593158.stm - accessed on February 8, 2012 40 http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_money/tax_index_ew/council_tax.htm - accessed on February 8, 2012 41 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_Tax - accessed on February 8, 2012 42 http://www.bized.co.uk/current/mind/2003_4/170504.htm - accessed on February 8, 2012 43 http://econ.economicshelp.org/2010/02/thatcher-revolution-1980s.html - accessed on February 8, 2012

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3.2. Reform of Social Services and Education

Under Margaret Thatcher, several changes were made to the British Health, Education and Pension systems. These reforms did not lead to a total change of the way these services were provided, with all of these services still being chiefly provided by the state itself, but they did lead to some alterations.45 The National Health Service, commonly abbreviated NHS, was for example restructured gradually in order to increase the amount of private health services, to introduce elements of internal competition and increase the NHS efficiency. The National Health Service has been providing healthcare for all British citizens since 1948, with the majority of services being free of charge, the exception being certain medications, eye treatments and dental services that are still comparatively cheap. 46 47 One noteworthy difference between the British public healthcare system and those present in many other European countries, Austria being one of them, is that it is not funded by social security, but entirely through taxes.48 49 The reforms were deemed necessary because the way the system was managed was often criticised, most famously in a report by Roy Griffiths to Parliament in 1984, and because the amount of money spent to keep up these services was constantly increasing ever since the establishment of the NHS due to higher costs and demands of the public for more advanced treatments.50 51 While the first reforms only led to a small increase of privately funded treatments and did not have any immediate effects on the health system as such, the measures taken after Griffiths report was released caused some uproar from doctors and nurses.50 They led to the replacement of consensus management by the newly introduced practice of general management. While consensus management meant that decisions were made by a group that included both members of the medical staff and the administrative staff, general management put one person solely in charge of making important decisions in a certain hospital or district. This change stirred up fear among some member of the British medical staff, who feared that they would now be overruled by

44 45

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Lawson#In_government - accessed on February 8, 2012 http://politics.beasts.org/scripts/celebrity?celebid=546327666 - accessed on February 8, 2012 46 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Service_%28England%29 - accessed on February 8, 2012 47 http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/about/Pages/overview.aspx - accessed on February 8, 2012 48 http://www.springermedizin.at/artikel/1738-grossbritannien-holt-im-gesundheitswesen-auf - accessed on February 8, 2012 49 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/workingpapers/saco/pdf/101_en.pdf - accessed on February 8, 2012 50 http://www.hsj.co.uk/resource-centre/best-practice/the-griffiths-report-25-years-on/5001481.article accessed on February 8, 2012 51 http://www.healthp.org/node/71 - accessed on February 8, 2012

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managers coming from the private sector with expertise on cost-effectiveness but no experience in health matters.50 The second important change to the British Healthcare system implemented under Thatcher was the introduction of an internal market within the NHS, which was put into effect with the National Health Service and Community Care Act of 1990.52 53 Following its introduction, the regional health authorities were no longer in charge of directly providing health services themselves, but had to assess which health services were needed in their respective areas and negotiate with the local health providers such as hospitals, who were now competing with each other to get contracted by their regional authorities. To be eligible to offer health services under the reformed NHS system, health organisations were transformed into so called NHS trusts, enabling them to act more independently, but also making them reliant on getting enough contracts to stay financially afloat.54 55 Like most of her reforms, Thatchers changes of the British health system are viewed with mixed opinions today, some praising them as a measure to cut the rising costs of the system while potentially increasing the quality of service for the patients thanks to the introduction of competition. Critics of her health policy believe that it created regional differences in the quality of healthcare and that it contradicted the principle of providing the same level of free healthcare to every British citizen on which the NHS was originally introduced and some of the changes she introduced were later reverted by the government of New Labour PM Tony Blair. 53 55 56

Margaret Thatchers alterations of the pension system were also aimed at reducing the amount of money the government had to spend to sustain it. They mainly consisted of two changes: in 1981, the basic state pension was detached from the average national wages and linked to average prices of goods instead. Until then, changes in the average wages automatically led to pensions rising in the same amount, which usually was higher than the inflation rate.57 58 In 1986, measures were taken that were originally supposed to lead to the abolishment of the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS), which was introduced by the Labour led
52

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Service_and_Community_Care_Act_1990 - accessed on February 8, 2012 53 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/background_briefings/your_nhs/85952.stm - accessed on February 8, 2012 54 http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Documents/HistoryNHS.html - accessed on February 8, 2012
55

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_National_Health_Service_%28England%29#Development_of_the _NHS_.28England.29_and_NHS_Wales_since_1970 - accessed on February 8, 2012 56 http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/about/Pages/nhscoreprinciples.aspx - accessed on February 8, 2012 57 http://www.watsonwyatt.com/render.asp?id=10187&catid=2 - accessed on February 8, 2012 58 http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/finkelstein_speech.htm - accessed on February 8, 2012

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government in the 1970s to increase the basic state pensions of people who were not subject to a pension plan given by their employer. It paid out 25% of the average income that the retiree received during the best 20 years of earning. In the early 1980s, most experts came to the conclusion that the costs of this system were much higher than expected and that it would not be sustainable over a longer period of time. However, since parts of the public, the political opposition and even insurance companies and some members of the conservative party were in favour of keeping SERPS, Thatcher could not entirely dissolve it. The changes introduced with the 1986 Social Security act therefore set about to convince workers to opt out of SERPS. The possibility of saving a percentage of ones pre-tax income into a private pension was introduced, while from 1988 onwards the amount paid out through SERPS was reduced to 20% of the 20 years with the highest income. The number of British citizens who chose to abandon SERPS was much larger than initially expected by the government, which anticipated that 300.000 workers would choose to leave SERPS by 1988, while in reality the number reached 3.2 million by 1988 and 5.5 million by 1995.57 58 59 The linking of the basic state pension to average prices in 1981 was accepted by most people since it was introduced in a time where Britain was faced with economic problems caused by the recession of the early 1980s and it did not create any immediate disadvantages for its recipients, with the decline of the affected pensions in comparison to the income of an average worker only becoming visible after some years. The actions set to create and promote alternatives to SERPS can be seen as successful in convincing many citizens to leave the state funded program, which was finally abolished in 2002 under Tony Blairs New Labour government. However, it also caused disadvantages for many people who left SERPS due to misinformation and pressure from insurance companies. Some chose to change to a private pension at a point where they would have received higher pensions from the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme, while others chose to leave their companies pension plan for a private pension with little or no financial participation from their employer.57 Today, as the results of Thatchers changes to the pension system become fully visible, they are frequently criticised. The Marxist magazine Gegenstandpunkt, for example, sees Margaret Thatchers government responsible for lowering pensions to a point where [] an ordinary employees state pension is frequently below the official poverty line and is supplemented by welfare benefits so that in the end it barely suffices to scrape a living.60

Thatchers policy on the British Education System can on the one hand be characterised similarly to her stance on many other services provided by the state. Her goal was to increase quality while reducing costs and allowing for more competition within the system
59 60

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Earnings-Related_Pension_Scheme - accessed on February 8, 2012 http://gegenstandpunkt.com/english/UK-social-reforms.html - accessed on February 8, 2012

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by giving more possibilities to private institutions and investors. On the other hand, several steps were taken to reduce left-wing ideology that many members of the conservative party saw within the curriculum and among the staff of the local education authorities, which were said to be dominated by members of the labour party.61 62 During the 1970s - despite Thatchers opposition to the trend during her time as Minister of Education - the so called Tripartite system, where children were split up into three types of schools according to their abilities after having completed primary education and a final exam at the age of 11, was replaced by a system of comprehensive secondary schools in most parts of England.61 63 Still being against this change as Prime Minister, she attempted to halt it in 1979 by lifting the order to the education authorities to transform all remaining grammar schools into comprehensive schools, and later, with the Education Reform Act 1988, introduced City Technology Colleges as a new alternative to comprehensive schools. These Colleges are funded in part by private investors and unlike the other secondary schools, are not controlled by regional departments but answer directly to the Department for Education. The introduction of comprehensive education was, however, well received in Britain at the time, and the number of City Technology Colleges stayed far behind the governments expectations, with only 15 opening, most of which converted to the newly created academy system in the early 2000s.62 64 The Education Reform Act 1988 reduced the power of local authorities in other ways as well: they were now required to take the wishes of students and parents into consideration when assigning them to secondary schools, a task that until then was done almost automatically.65 Additionally, Local Management was introduced, which allowed schools to control their budgets on their own, without having to consult their regional education authority first and schools were given the possibility to become Grant-maintained schools if the majority of parents was in favour of the step. Grant-maintained schools were completely independent from their local authority and were funded directly by the government. Over the next decade, a total of about 1200 schools became grant-maintained, until the system was abolished in 1998 by Tony Blairs government. 62 66 A National Curriculum was also introduced with the Act of 1988, which both set the values and goals that the British education system should follow and certain targets in key subjects that students should meet at the end of each of four key stages.61 62 To assess whether the targets are met, standard assessment tests were introduced in English, Mathematics and Science. The

61 62

http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/chapter08.html - accessed on February 10, 2012 http://www.earlhamsociologypages.co.uk/conthatnewright.html#New_Right - accessed on February 10, 2012 63 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_school#United_Kingdom - accessed on February 10, 2012 64 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Technology_College - accessed on February 10, 2012 65 http://www.umanitoba.ca/publications/cjeap/articles/younglevin.html - accessed on February 10, 2012 66 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant-maintained_school - accessed on February 10, 2012

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national curriculum is still in practice today in a similar manner to when it was introduced in 1988, although extensive changes are discussed at the moment.67 68 Thatchers policy on higher education and universities also led to much controversy since under her leadership, students and professors perceived their institutes budget s as being significantly lowered, despite contradicting announcements by the government. These conflicts escalated to the point that in 1985, Oxford University decided not to award an honorary doctorate to Thatcher in protest of her measures, making her the first Oxford alumna who became a Prime Minister and did not receive such a degree.69 70 71

3.3. Privatisation and Deregulation

Privatisation and de-nationalisation are among the measures that are most commonly associated with Margaret Thatchers term in office.72 73 However, the very first acts of privatization in Britain, albeit on a very small scale, were actually committed by the preceding government led by PM James Callaghan, a member of the Labour party, who sold a small stake in British Petroleum due to pressure by the IMF in 1977.74 75 Thatchers government itself hardly practiced any kind of privatisation during its first years in office and the first partial sales of national companies, among them being half the shares of Cable and Wireless plc. and 51% of Britoil, were not mainly done for ideological reasons, but mainly to counteract the countries debts after the recession of 1980 and 1981. 75 76 77 Only after the successful sale of 51% of shares of British Telecom to private investors in 1984 - much more stock being requested than available by both British citizens, often investing in stocks for the first time in their lives and investment banks, did the Thatcher government decide to make privatisation one of their main political tasks.77 78 79 This was done in order to
67

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Curriculum_%28England,_Wales_and_Northern_Ireland%29 accessed on February 10, 2012 68 http://www.insidegovernment.co.uk/children/reform-curriculum/ - accessed on February 15, 2012 69 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premiership_of_Margaret_Thatcher#Domestic_criticism - accessed on February 10, 2012 70 http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/29/newsid_2506000/2506019.stm - accessed on February 10, 2012 71 http://www.atm.damtp.cam.ac.uk/mcintyre/papers/LHCE/uk-higher-education.html - accessed on February 10, 2012 72 http://www.answers.com/topic/thatcherism-2 - accessed on February 1, 2012 73 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3636207/Margaret -Thatcher-Radical-visionary-who-rescuedBritain.html - accessed on February 1, 2012 74 http://www.privatizationbarometer.net/atlas.php?id=9&mn=PM - accessed on February 1, 2012 75 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2000/nov/22/thatcher.politics1- accessed on February 1, 2012 76 http://www.bized.co.uk/dataserv/chron/kf80.htm - accessed on February 1, 2012 77 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/51ccaa1c-20c2-11e1-816d-00144feabdc0.html - accessed on February 1, 2012 78 http://www.libertystory.net/LSUNFORGETTHATCHER.htm - accessed on February 1, 2012 79 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4061613.stm - accessed on February 1, 2012

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increase the efficiency of the British industry and liberalise Britains economy, which caused the process of deregulating and selling state-owned companies to gain pace: in 1985, a law to deregulate to a great extent the state owned bus services was introduced, in 1986, British Gas plc. was fully sold on the stock market, in 1987 British Airways and the British Airport Authority were made public among others and in 1988, British Steel was privatised. 80 81 82 The initial success of the majority of sales of formerly state-owned companies that occurred during Thatchers leadership was partially brought about by advertising campaigns aimed at convincing British citizens to invest in shares of newly privatised companies, such as the Tell Sid campaign accompanying the sale of British Gas plc..77 81 It also coincided with the measures of modernisation and deregulation of the London Stock Exchange taken in 1986, known as the Big Bang.83 These reforms were aimed at increasing the competitiveness of London in comparison to other global financial hubs and created the possibility for banks to become brokers themselves, while also abolishing fixed commissions for brokers and introducing an electronic trading system, resulting in a period of growth for the London Stock Exchange and Britains financial sector in general.83 84 85 To account for the loss of direct state control in many parts of the national infrastructure, several new authorities were set up to regulate the newly created free market such as Ofgas, Oftel or London Buses Limited.86 87 The effects of Margaret Thatchers privatisation policies are still controversially debated today as opinions differ on whether the results de-nationalisation had on Britains economy are mainly positive or negative. Most analysts agree that Thatchers reforms paved the way for further privatisations enforced by her successors, such as the privatisation of the British railway system, some viewing her measures as a counterpart to Clement Attlees policy, who started a strong trend towards nationalisation after World War II.88 89 Positive effects that are attributed to de-nationalisation under Thatcher are the ending of monopolies in many industries, creating more competition and thus lowering the prices that the consumer has to pay.82 It is also widely accepted that inconveniences that existed in state-owned companies such as lack of friendly and efficient customer support or outdated technologies soon disappeared once these enterprises were sold and faced with private competition.78

80 81

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Act_1985 - accessed on February 1, 2012 http://www.gasarchive.org/privatisation1.htm - accessed on February 1, 2012 82 http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2001/mar/20/5 - accessed on February 1, 2012 83 http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Big+Bang- accessed on February 1, 2012 84 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stock_Exchange#.22Big_Bang.22- accessed on February 1, 2012 85 http://wiki.uiowa.edu/display/06e169/The+Big+Bang- accessed on February 1, 2012 86 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher#Domestic_affairs- accessed on February 1, 2012 87 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatisation_of_London_bus_services- accessed on February 1, 2012 88 http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2001/mar/20/5 - accessed on February 1, 2012 89 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Attlee#Nationalisation - accessed on February 1, 2012

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Another consequence that is seen positively by Thatchers followers is that she increased the number of private shareholders from 3 million to 11.5 million during her term, which helped raise support among the public for her actions.90 Critics, however, often argue that many jobs were lost due to measures set in order to increase efficiency of companies that are now solely focused on achieving high profits to satisfy their shareholders rather than the interests of the public.75 Also it is claimed that some corporations were privatised at the cost of their former identity, often being either merged with international businesses or split up into several smaller firms. One example for this is British Gas plc. which was restructured and split into two companies in the years 1996 and 1997. These companies were later restructured themselves and today, the brand name British Gas is used by one of these companies, Centrica plc..91 Another point of critique is that shares for newly privatized companies were sold for relatively low prices, which lead to high demand from investors and positive performance but might have reduced the amount of money gained by the state. 75 77
92

3.4. Relationship with Unions

Traditionally strong in Britain, the trade unions influence on politics was very visible during the 1970s: a conflict between the conservative prime minister Edward Heath and the National Union of Mineworkers helped the Labour party return to power by winning both general elections held in 1974, while the Winter of Discontent in 1979 played an important part in ensuring Margaret Thatchers victory in the 1979 general election.93 During Margaret Thatchers term in office several measures were taken that reduced the immunity and influence of British unions: With the Trade Union Act of 1984, they were required to hold a ballot with a majority of positive votes before declaring a strike 94, and several Employment Acts that set a stricter framework for picketing the act of protesting directly in front of a workplace to prevent strike-breakers and customers from entering the premises- took away parts of the immunity that unions had enjoyed until then. It also limited the use of the closed shop policy companies declaring that they would only hire workers that are member of a union. 95 96 97 98 99 100 The recession of the early 1980s, in combination
90

http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/what-we-can-learn-from-margaret-thatcher - accessed on February 1, 2012 91 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Gas_plc - accessed on February 1, 2012 92 Stewart Morris, Did the Thatcher governments change Britain? 93 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3067563.stm - accessed on February 1, 2012 94 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/49/part/II/1991-02-01?timeline=true&view=plain - accessed on February 1, 2012 95 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/42/enacted?view=plain - accessed on February 1, 2012 96 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1982/46/enacted?view=plain - accessed on February 1, 2012 97 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Act_1982 - accessed on February 1, 2012

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with the reforms passed by the government that weakened the unions standing, led to a strong decline of membership among the unions: while during the 1970s about 12 million workers were union members, this number was almost cut in half by the late 1980s. 93 A conflict between Thatchers government and the unions that is referred to as Britain's most bitter industrial dispute of recent times101 is the miners strike that started in March 1984 and lasted for one year. Starting out as a strike in a single coal mine in Yorkshire, it soon led to half of Britains miners ceasing to work after the British National Coal Board announced that 20 mines were to be closed, meaning that 20.000 jobs would be axed.102 The head of the National Union of Mineworkers, Arthur Scargill, called for a national strike on March 12, 1984. This later proved to be problematic since no ballot was held as the law would have required, and in some regions the majority of miners were actually in favour of remaining at work. This led to the appearance of pickets at mines where workers were still at work and several violent skirmishes with the police.101 During the strike Thatchers government employed a hard stance on the union, due to the fact that in previous years sufficient reserves of coal had been built up. 93 Many workers, however, were faced with the choice of either returning to work or relying on donations in order to afford their daily expenses and be able feed their families, since they did not get paid for the duration of the strike, which lasted longer than most workers initially expected.103 After one year of protesting, the National Union of Mineworkers was faced with a decline of striking workers and the perspective that continuing the strike was more likely to worsen matters for its members than to get the employers to change their position. Therefore, on March 3, 1985 a small majority of union representatives voted in favour of ending the strike, despite not having reached a compromise with the government.104 105 Margaret Thatchers hard stance on the unions was therefore both successful, as she had taken on the strongest union in the land and won101 and caused a significant loss of power of the unions, but at the same time controversial, as she treated the unions much harsher

98 99

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/picketing.html - accessed on February 1, 2012 http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/TradeUnions/DG_10027549 - accessed on February 1, 2012 100 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picketing_%28protest%29 - accessed on February 1, 2012 101 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3494024.stm - accessed on February 1, 2012 102 http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/mar04.shtml - accessed on February 1, 2012 103 http://www.wcml.org.uk/timeline/1984/ - accessed on February 1, 2012
104

http://www.unionhistory.info/timeline/1960_2000_Narr_Display_2.php?Where=NarTitle+contains+%27The+1 984-85+Miners+Strike%27 - accessed on February 1, 2012

105

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_miners%27_strike_%281984%E2%80%931985%29#The_formal_end accessed on February 1, 2012

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than any of her recent predecessors and even referred to the unions as being the enemy within.106

4. The Influence of Thatcherism on British Politics in Recent Years

In the years after Margaret Thatchers departure from office, Britains economic policy continued to move in the direction that she and her government had set. Her conservative successor John Major did not make any drastic turns from her ideology and Bob Jessop, Professor at the University of Lancaster says that his government could be interpreted as 'Thatcherism with a grey face'.107 As part of his policy, he continued to privatize stateowned businesses, most famously British Rail in 1994..108 109 110 When the Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, returned to power in 1997, it had also been affected by the Thatcher era. It was rebranded as New Labour and promoted a so called third way, which was set in between Keynesian politics of government intervention and Neoliberal deregulation.106 111 112 The Labour Party no longer called for measures of redistribution, but did continue to emphasize the role of the state in economics, with the goal of positioning itself as the new business party in Britain.113 John Kampfner, journalist for the conservative Daily Telegraph, arrives at the conclusion that the economic policy of Blairs New Labour government and its continuation under Gordon Brown can be seen as Thatcherite. Stressing the fact that state involvement was only intensified in some select ways such as increasing support for the unemployed and setting minimum wages, he arrives at the conclusion that Blair not only confirmed many of her policies, but in some respects actually took them further [] .114 Kampfner points out that under New Labour, many elements of Thatcherism were left intact, for example keeping the unions in check and continuing the support for collaborations of the state with private investors. Todays British government - a coalition between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, in office since 2010 and led by Conservative PM David Cameron which aims to deal with the consequences of the current global economic crisis with the concept of a Big Society is also attributed with promoting some elements of Thatcherism. The Big Society, which was the main agenda of the 2010 Conservative election programme, is a plan that is
106

http://www.politicalbiography.co.uk/margaret-thatcher-biography/28-margaret-thatcher-and-the-tradeunions.html - accessed on February 1, 2012 107 Bob Jessop, From Thatcherism to New Labour: Neo-Liberalism, Workfarism, and Labour Market Regulation 108 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Major - accessed on February 12, 2012 109 http://osb.revues.org/717 - accessed on February 12, 2012 110 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatisation_of_British_Rail - accessed on February 15, 2012 111 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_way_%28centrism%29 - accessed on February 12, 2012 112 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/458626.stm - accessed on February 12, 2012 113 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/thatcherism_01.shtml - accessed on February 12, 2012 114 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/themargaretthatcheryears/1895878/Margaret-Thatcherinspiration-to-New-Labour.html - accessed on February 12, 2012

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promoted by the government as giving more power to local communities. This will be achieved by reducing centralism and bestowing more power upon the local governments and authorities as well as private companies and local organisations and charities. These are to get higher aid by the state for in turn taking on responsibilities that were previously fulfilled by the welfare state. In 2011, Cameron additionally announced that in the future private companies and organisations should be able to make offers for taking over almost any type of public sector work. Because of this practice of increasing private competition to the public institutions in order to cut costs, many analysts see the government in line with the privatisation policy of Margaret Thatcher.115 116 117 118 Another part of Camerons policy where comparisons between Thatcher and Cameron are frequently drawn is his reform of the National Health Service. With the Health and Social Care Bill 2011, Cameron announced plans to greatly restructure the NHS, the biggest changes being the abolishment of both the strategic health authorities, which distribute the NHS funds on a regional level and the primary care trusts, which are currently responsible for planning out the healthcare in their respective areas by commissioning medical care providers and NHS trusts.119 120 Instead, the budgets are to be distributed to clinical commissioning groups who take over the responsibilities. Many interpret this as a further act of privatisation and outsourcing since while these groups are officially to be run by local General Practitioners, it is expected that private companies will invest and participate in these groups. 121 While Thatcher herself mainly focused her reforms of the NHS on the introduction of an internal market and only brought about small steps towards more private money being involved in the healthcare system, similarities between Camerons policy and Thatcherism can still be found, since his changes would reduce the direct control of public institutions, handing them over to participants of the free market, one of the main elements of Thatcherism. However, since the NHS reforms are one of the most fiercely debated parts of Camerons policy, it is not yet known how much of the original plans will be put into practice once the changes are effective, as the public discussion in Britain is still on-going with parts of the British public calling for an overhaul of the bill.122 123

115 116

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/came-j20.shtml - accessed on February 12, 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Society - accessed on February 12, 2012 117 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12520491 - accessed on February 12, 2012 118 http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/alexsingleton/100076991/is-david-cameron-reinventing-himself-as-athatcherite/ - accessed on February 12, 2012 119 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_strategic_health_authority - accessed on February 12, 2012 120 http://www.nhsconfed.org/Networks/PrimaryCareTrust/AboutThePrimaryCareTrustNetwork/Pages/Aboutthe-Priamary-Care-Trust.aspx - accessed on February 12, 2012 121 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_Social_Care_Bill_2011 - accessed on February 12, 2012 122 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16632291 - accessed on February 12, 2012 123 http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/12/nhs-bill-toxic-conservatives-lansley - accessed on February 12, 2012

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5. Conclusion
Even to this day there are diverging opinions on the question of whether Margaret Thatchers policy was on the whole a good thing for Britains economy. This can be seen, for example, when looking at the results of a questionnaire among British citizens conducted by the BBC. Some hail her because they believe that she prepared the British economy for the future, enabling it to stay competitive by modernising it and reducing the influence of the unions, which they see as a disadvantage. Other British citizens regard her term as Prime Minister as a good thing altogether because they were able to personally benefit from it through investing in shares of newly privatised companies. The people who gave more critical answers to the BBC mostly dislike exactly these changes: they say that working conditions tended to become worse and only a relatively small part of the people who bought stocks really made a significant profit. A number of citizens also mention in their responses that they generally have the impression that the social climate in the British society cooled down under Thatchers government, with competition increasing while less opportunities for career and education became available to them.124 Amongst economists and journalists, opinions are split just as much: some praise her, saying that her reforms modernised Britain and enabled it to stay competitive, creating popular capitalism and inspiring many other countries to turn to Neoliberal policies. Simon Heffer, author for the Guardian even goes as far as saying that Thatcher as Prime Minister was a Radical visionary who rescued Britain.125 Many critics of her economic policy bring forth the number of jobs that were lost while Thatcher was in office, as businesses were privatised, the economy deregulated and the power of the unions greatly reduced. An article in the New Statesman, for example, states the belief that Thatcher is still guilty after all these years for bringing about reforms that lead to many societies in cities that were affected by job cuts being destroyed. The economic indicators during the Thatcher era also allow for different conclusions. Unemployment numbers, for example, rose sharply in the early 1980s, rising from 1.1 million in 1979, to a peak level of more than 3 million or 12 per cent of the working population in 1984. Afterwards, the levels started to decline slowly, being at 1.6 million in April 1990, 6 months before the end of Thatchers time as Prime Minister.126 127 128 129 The GDP

124 125

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/1878902.stm - accessed on February 13, 2012 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3636207/Margaret-Thatcher-Radical-visionary-who-rescuedBritain.html - accessed on February 13, 2012 126 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4447082.stm - accessed on February 13, 2012 127 http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/unemployment-rate - accessed on February 13, 2012 128 http://www.bized.co.uk/dataserv/chron/kf80.htm - accessed on February 13, 2012 129 http://www.bized.co.uk/dataserv/chron/kf90all.htm - accessed on February 13, 2012

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meanwhile developed very differently: it initially sank in the years of the recession in Britain, 1980 to 1982, and then continuously grew until Thatcher resigned.130 In the end, it is up to the individual to decide whether one approves of Thatcherism or not, depending on ones ideology and stance on government involvement, union policy and neoliberal politics in general. However, one thing that certainly becomes clear when researching opinions on Thatchers policy is that her leadership polarises, and as stated in the beginning of this work, only very few people who did some research on her policies stay indifferent to what she did.

130

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4447082.stm - accessed on February 13, 2012

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6. Abstract
Die vorliegende Fachbereichsarbeit beschftigt sich mit der Wirtschaftspolitik Margaret Thatchers, die von 1979 bis 1990 Premierministerin des Vereinigten Knigreichs war. Nach einer kurzen Zusammenfassung der Biografie und der Aufzhlung einiger Hhepunkte ihrer Amtszeit, die nicht konomischer Natur sind, wird die Situation der britischen Wirtschaft in der Zeit vor Thatchers Amtsantritt skizziert, die unter anderem durch Probleme mit dem Staatshaushalt und Konflikte mit den Gewerkschaften gekennzeichnet war. Der weitere Teil der Einleitung erklrt die Bedeutung von Neoliberalismus und Monetarismus, welche bedeutende Elemente in Thatchers Ideologie waren. Im Hauptteil wird auf die einzelnen wirtschaftspolitischen Reformen der Politikerin und deren Auswirkungen eingegangen. Ihre Geldmittel- und Steuerpolitik, die vor allem auf eine Vernderung der Last von direkten auf indirekten Steuern hinauslief, sowie Thatchers Vernderungen am Gesundheits-, Pensions- und Bildungssystem werden beschrieben. Jede der drei letztgenannten Reformen hatte das Ziel, die Ausgaben des Staates zu senken, im Bildungs- und Gesundheitswesen sollte auerdem mehr Konkurrenz auch durch private Anbieter und Entscheidungsfreiheit erzielt werden. Im Gesundheitssystem, das in Grobritannien unter dem Namen National Health Service betrieben wird, wurde beispielsweise ein interner Markt eingefhrt, um Leistungen knftig gnstiger zu erhalten. Im Kapitel ber Privatisierungen und Deregulierungen in Grobritannien wird der von Thatcher eingeschlagene Weg von einer zu groen Teilen aus verstaatlichten Betrieben bestehenden, hin zu einer grtenteils privatisierten Wirtschaft skizziert. Im letzten Abschnitt des Hauptteils gehe ich auf die Konflikte zwischen Margaret Thatchers Regierung und den Gewerkschaften ein, auf die Reformen, die den Einfluss der Organisationen schwchten und insbesondere auf den Streik der Minenarbeiter in den Jahren 1984 1985. Dieser Konflikt, der als Protest gegen Schlieungen von Minen begann, wurde von beiden Seiten mit aller Hrte ausgefochten und endete schlielich in einer Niederlage der Gewerkschaft, die den Protest nach einem Jahr aufgeben musste, ohne ein Einlenken der Arbeitgeberseite erzielt zu haben. Im vorletzten Kapitel gehe ich der Frage nach, welche Auswirkungen Thatchers Politik auf die ihr nachfolgenden Regierungen hatte. Die hnlichkeiten und Unterschiede des Thatcherismus zu Tony Blairs und Gordon Browns New Labour werden erlutert, bevor schlielich auf die heutige britische Regierung unter dem konservativen Premierminister David Cameron eingegangen wird. Bei deren Programm sind hnlichkeiten zu den Reformen Margaret Thatchers vor allem in geplanten Ausschreibungen ffentlicher Dienstleistungen an private Anbieter sowie in tief greifenden nderungen des Gesundheitssystems, die im Moment in England heftig debattiert werden, zu finden.

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Im abschlieenden Kapitel der Arbeit werden sowohl positive und negative Stimmen aus der Bevlkerung als auch kritische und lobende Kommentare von Wirtschaftsjournalisten zusammengefasst, um zu verdeutlichen, wie kontroversiell der Thatcherismus noch heute betrachtet wird.

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7. List of Sources
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Image source (front page):

1. http://aprnonline.com/?p=88266 - accessed at February 14, 2012

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8. Work Log
May 2011: Decision to write FBA, some initial research August-September 2011: Collection of sources, finalisation of the exact topic, creation of bullet points of the papers content December 2011: Work on introduction, research on privatisation and Margaret Thatchers relationship with unions January 2012: research on Thatchers ideology, tax and monetary policy and her reforms of the British educational system and the National Health Service January 15, 2012: Completion of the first draft of the chapter on unions January 31, 2012: Completion of the first draft of the chapter on privatisation and deregulation February 2012: Completion of remaining chapters on Thatchers policy and ideology, research on Thatchers impact on British politics today February 12, 2012: Completion of chapter on Thatchers impact on British politics today February 13, 2012: Creation of preface and conclusion February 14 - 15, 2012: Final corrections

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