Margaret Thatcher: Creating a Neoliberal Culture Essay

Marg bet Thatcher had a resounding career as a Prime Minister in Britain. She was loved and hated for her strong handed nature to politics. She brood kill unemployment and brought Britain out of a recession through utilizing liberal policies. Thatcher increased the agency of the private sector with a reduction of administration regulation and privatization of prevalent facilities. She took charge at creating a gloss that was focused on the individual. at last she battled any unions, which sought to ch completelyenge the neoliberal value she was fostering.In rig to cl lead Margaret Thatcher as a neoliberal, a solid definition of neoliberalism is needed. The political theory of neoliberalism is grounded in individual freedom. In order to achieve this, neoliberals ask for a system of political sympathies that is minimal. There should be almost no regulations that aim at restricting an individuals freedom (Hall 2011 11). This allows citizenry to turning as free agents in acc ordance to their personal aspirations. To supplement this close there is a desire for open, combative and unregulated markets. State-led social engineering science must never prevail over corporate and private interests.(Hall 2011 10-11) capitalist economy as a market system provides freedom from state hinderance and social collectivities. Stuart Hall states how Neoliberals see this as the optimal mechanism to social- sparing development, (Hall 2011 11).They unavoidableness to provide equality of opportunity and understand that this has a propensity to exe get bye inequality. This inequality is seen as a necessary evil in the basis of freedom, and ask that organization not make any attempts to ameliorate the snap between multitude. The governments role comes to the provision of securing the freedom of the people it sees over (Hall 2011 11). It does this through various things such(prenominal) as state head military, police force, and law that protects private contracts. These state facilities protect the individuals and allow them to decease within the state. Neoliberalism is an ideology that acts to create individuals free to make choice and to follow or fail by them. maven of the main facets of neoliberalism is the reduction of government tominimal levels. When Margaret Thatcher took office in 1979 she was determined to separate herself from the more collectivised values of past leaders. Thatcher immediately sought to reduce agency of the government in the private sector through flotation of government have facilities. There where a series of small sell offs and then in 1984 the privatization of British Telecom proved hugely successful at trim public debt. Then in 1987 opened the floodgates with the privatization of British Air shipway, Rolls-Royce, British Airports Authority, and after British steel (Hall 2011room and Sylvia 2011). After this Thatcher similarly was able to privatize British oil companies. She even privatized utilities suc h as water and electricity (Moore 2011). too the privatization of organizations, she also removed regulations on private corporations. The fair wages dissolver created a wage floor that restricted the readiness of corporations to pay competitive wages (Robertson 1986 288). In 1983 the government removed this resolution, opening a bulky gap in this wage floor (Robertson 1986 288). The Employment personation of 1975 gave workers the ability to submit low wage claims for government arbitration. Thatcher removed this with her updated Employment Act of 1980 (Robertson 1986 286). She was even willing to work around the law to increase the power of corporations When unable to make reparations to council law on minimum wages, she introduced the Young Workers evasion (Robertson 1986 287).This grated subsidies to employers who give less then legal minimum wage to workers 18 and younger (Robertson 1986 287). After the YWS was phased out she continued to avoid law with the red-hot Worker s Scheme (Robertson 1986 287). She provided government subsidies of 20 to workers between the ages of eighteen and twenty who were paid less than 80 per-week (Robertson 1986 287). This allows corporations to set prices lower than legal and incentives workers to take those positions. on with increasing the strength of the private sector, Margaret Thatcher wanted to change British last to be more in line with neoliberalism. She did this by promoting individual values and the reduction of state dependency. In Thatchers own words, There is no such thing as society. There is only the individual and his family, (Hall 2011 11). One of the first things she did was instate the Enterprise Allowance Scheme (Robertson 1986 288). This replaced employment benefits by bighearted 40 a week to 65,000people and then a metre if they start their own business. This promotes individuals to create their own solutions in an frugal milieu that was riddled with unemployment. She then went on to make une mployment even less good-hearted by cutting benefits offered to real values not seen since 1951 (Robertson 1986 288).Thatcher had even brocaded the idea of refusing supplemental benefits to youth who didnt register for occupations or job training, but had to back off when faced with accusation that this would be equal to conscription (Robertson 1986 289). These reforms had the effect of raising self-employed citizens to ten percent, declared by Britains Department of Employment (Jenkins 2007 164). Britains rank in economic freedom and entrepreneurial welcome has risen from 15th in 1989 to maiden in 1990 (Jenkins 2007 164). The above references show that Thatcher was trying to, and in many ways succeeded in creating a culture of individualism and self responsibility in BritainA source of protection to the culture she had created was worker unions. Margaret Thatcher goes on to separate union power and stands cold faced and firm against any resistance they show. There are several key years in Thatchers battle against unions. In 1980, 1982, and 1984 there were a series of acts that undermined union economic and political power (Robertson 1986 286). The Employment Acts in 1980 and 1982 served to strip legal pays from unions such as secondary picketing and sympathy whips. In 1982 there was an act that relaxed rules to partial dismissal. What it did was to exempt small businesses from rules that enabled workers to file unfair dismissal claims if they had less than dickens years of service (Robertson 1986 286). She even went to try and extend this exemption to all business in 1985 (Robertson 1986 286).In response some unions organized strikes to face Thatchers crackdown. The most well known attempt was the miners union organizing a strike that lasted for over a year (Moore 2011). Throughout this Thatcher did not pay any of her conditions or regulations. In the end the union gave in and the strike stony-broke (Moore 2011). Throughout her time in office the yearly funds lost to days of strike fell from 29.5 million to 1.9 million (Moore 2011). Margaret Thatcher drove union membership down sixteen percent between I979 and I984 (Robertson 1986 287), masking that she was further driving Britain intoNeoliberal idealsSome people have suggested that Margaret Thatchers assault on government and claimed her to be as far right as libertarian. The previously stated quote there is no such thing as society. There is only the individual and his (sic) family, (Hall 2011 11) is a radically right saying people could point towards. Also her privatization of essential goods and serve such as water points towards a far right standpoint. The fight between neoliberal and libertarian mainly comes down to degree. This means that both are right aligned, holding a focus on freeing of people and reducing government. It should be held that Margaret Thatcher is not as far right as libertarian.Though she took Britain a farseeing with her in a huge sweet polit ically in that direction, she held some key businesses as private for the benefit of Britains economic well being. She also did not really undermine the post-war public assistance consensus. She retained such public sector giants as the NHS, British Rail, the bureau Office (Jenkins 2007 162). These could have been privatized, but it was held that doing this could hurt Britain economically. A libertarian would have to cut these as they are not seen as being responsible to the state. She also kept the structure of social welfare and benefits (Jenkins 2007 162). Though she did restrict sustenance and brought it down in degree, a libertarian would have eliminated such state propel benefits For these reasons Thatcher is politically right, but not to the degree of libertarianism.Margaret Thatchers career as a Prime Minister in Britain was controversial at best. She took to neoliberal values to drive down unemployment and foster economic profit in Britain Thatcher stripped the public s ector of many of its organizations and then cutting government regulations to increase the power of the private sector. She sought to create a culture in Britain around the individual and their responsibility to their own success. She also broke down unions as they stood to fight against the neoliberal culture she had created. This is why Margaret Thatcher is a neoliberal.ReferencesRobertson, David. 1986. Mrs. Thatchers Employment Prescription An ActiveNeo-Liberal Labor Market indemnity Journal of Public Policy. 6 275-296.Groom, Brian. And Pfeifer, Sylvia. 2011. Privatisation defined Thatcher era. http//search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/docview/909517457 (November 21, 2012).Hall, Stuart. 2011. The neoliberal revolution Thatcher, Blair, Cameron the long march of neoliberalism continues.Soundings. 48 9-27.Moore, Charles. 2011. The Invincible Mrs. Thatcher. http//go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA276179927&v=2.1&u=ucalgary&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w (Novembe r 21, 2012).Jenkins, Simon. 2007. Thatchers Legacy. Political Studies Review. 5 161-171.