Thatcherism and New Labour - similarities
"The similarities between Thatcherism and New Labour are more important than the differences". Discuss.Thatcherism was built upon: Classical Liberalism, which emphasises the importance of individual freedom, and Conservatism, which promotes the notions of national sovereignty, the family and traditional morals and the minimising of state intervention. Thatcher developed her policies over time with her first government focussing on union reform and monetary control, the second focussing on privatisation and the third focussing on the restructuring of the welfare state. After becoming leader of the party in 1994, Blair made a decisive break away from Old Labour's traditional political stance, rebranding the party as 'New Labour'. In policy terms New Labour often refer to themselves as 'The Third Way' between Old Labour, whose 'statist socialism' they believe to be too radical, and Thatcherism, which they consider to have been overly concerned by the principle of laissez-faire and individualism. By accepting many of his predecessors ideas on: free trade, the requirement of a flexible labour market, the need to promote the spirit of entrepreneurial capitalism, the necessity for greater individual self-help and personal ini
Another popular theory is the 'modernisation theory'. It seems that New Labour's economic policy is built around the consolidation of a close working relationship between the government and employers, where trade union power hardly features. The similarities and differences between New Labour and Thatcherism hold varying degrees of importance in these theories. Although there seems to be a significant continuation of policy in many areas, in my opinion this is a likely to be as a result of the preference accommodation theory, with Labour feeling under intense pressure to gain back lost electoral ground by pursuing a considerable degree of conformation to the previously successful Thatcherite campaigns. This policy shift is thought by many to represent a considerable acceptance of the broad legacy of the Thatcher years by Blair. Social welfare policy was another fundamental area of conflicting political stances. They argue that a reliance on market forces alone is likely to result in an under-investment in education and training and therefore it is the government's duty to intervene with supply side education and training policies. Thatcher felt scepticism towards Europe regarding the EC as a threat to Britain's sovereignty. This was symptomatic of New Labour's rejection of socialism and adoption of core Thatcherite values on privatisation. This suggests that Labour therefore felt the need to adapt to the changing social climate when reforming their policies. More importantly the fundamental differences in party ideology still remained. tiative in welfare, it can be argued that Blair has significantly shifted the party to becoming more 'Thatcherite'. New Labour steered away from the Thatcher style unswerving devotion to the market by recognising that there remained areas where a certain degree of government intervention is actually required. Therefore New Labour's shift in policies should not be seen as a concession to Thatcherism, but rather as a long overdue modernisation that had previously been prevented by the influence of the trade unions and the pressure from the extreme left. There were four crucial aspects of Margaret Thatcher's economic reform: the privatisation of industry, the controlling of inflation, the curbing of union power, and the reduction of public spending in order to allow cuts in direct taxation.
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