• DOI:10.1111/1467-9248.00105
• Corpus ID: 143151570

Conservative Governments and the Economy, 1979–97

@article{Wilks1997ConservativeGA,
  title={Conservative Governments and the Economy, 1979–97},
  author={Stephen Wilks},
  journal={Political Studies},
  year={1997},
  volume={45},
  pages={689 - 703}
}

• S. Wilks
• Published 1 September 1997
• Economics
• Political Studies

Over the past eighteen years Conservative economic policy makers have taken the British economy on a remarkable roller coaster ride which has seen two deep recessions, a triumphant boom and a mature recovery. In the process they have created the electoral paradox of winning in a recession (1992 ± and virtually 1983) and losing during a recovery (1997). The shape of macro-economic policy has been transformed by the ending of the British establishment's love a€air with Keynesianism and by its ̄irtations with Europe, although there remains considerable institutional continuity. In contrast, in the realm of microeconomic policy, on the supply side of the economy, there have been a series of profound institutional changes. Privatization has eliminated the state-owned sector of industry; the labour market has been transformed by measures in industrial relations and education; and ®nancial re-regulation has changed the face of the ®nancial sector. Meanwhile supply side policy has gone through a cycle of disengagement, detachment and revival of interest in the idea of competitiveness. This period of Conservative ascendancy has employed new ideas, new policies, and a new style of government to arm an ancient doctrine: the doctrine of the market. It is hardly surprising that one of the main outcomes of eighteen years of a pro-capitalist government should be a reinforcement of capitalist property relations and the triumphof themaster institution of contemporary capitalism ± the business corporation. Labour is also now a party of the market. Clause IV has been rewritten, and terms such as co-operative capitalism and stakeholder capitalism have entered the New Labour discourse. In the following discussion less attention is paid to macro-economic policy and the in ̄uence of the EuropeanUnion. Important though these factors are, they have been generously discussed elsewhere. Instead more emphasis is given to the supply side, to institutions and to changes in the importance of business corporations.