Ideas and Economic Crises in Britain from Attlee to Blair (1945-2005)

Ideas and Economic Crises in Britain from Attlee to Blair (1945-2005) PDF Author: Matthias M Matthijs
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136907890
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
During the period from 1945 to 2005, Britain underwent two deep-seated institutional transformations when political elites successfully challenged the prevailing wisdom on how to govern the economy. Attlee and Thatcher were able to effectively implement most of their political platforms. During this period there were also two opportunities to challenge existing institutional arrangements. Heath's 'U-turn' in 1972 signalled his failure to implement the radical agenda promised upon election in 1970, whilst Tony Blair’s New Labour similarly failed to instigate a major break with the 'Thatcherite' settlement. Rather than simply retell the story of British economic policymaking since World War II, this book offers a theoretically informed version of events, which draws upon the literatures on institutional path dependence, economic constructivism and political economy to explain this puzzle. It will be of great interest to both researchers and postgraduates with an interest in British economic history and the fields of political economy and economic crisis more widely.

Ideas and Economic Crises in Britain from Attlee to Blair (1945-2005)

Ideas and Economic Crises in Britain from Attlee to Blair (1945-2005) PDF Author: Matthias M Matthijs
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136907890
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
During the period from 1945 to 2005, Britain underwent two deep-seated institutional transformations when political elites successfully challenged the prevailing wisdom on how to govern the economy. Attlee and Thatcher were able to effectively implement most of their political platforms. During this period there were also two opportunities to challenge existing institutional arrangements. Heath's 'U-turn' in 1972 signalled his failure to implement the radical agenda promised upon election in 1970, whilst Tony Blair’s New Labour similarly failed to instigate a major break with the 'Thatcherite' settlement. Rather than simply retell the story of British economic policymaking since World War II, this book offers a theoretically informed version of events, which draws upon the literatures on institutional path dependence, economic constructivism and political economy to explain this puzzle. It will be of great interest to both researchers and postgraduates with an interest in British economic history and the fields of political economy and economic crisis more widely.

Neoliberal Thought and Thatcherism

Neoliberal Thought and Thatcherism PDF Author: Robert Ledger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135198764X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
The premiership of Margaret Thatcher has been portrayed as uniquely ideological in its pursuit of a more market-based economy. A body of literature has been built on how a sharp turn to the right by the Conservative Party during the 1980s - inspired by the likes of Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek - acted as one of the key stepping stones to the turbo-charged capitalism and globalization of our modern world. But how ‘neoliberal’ was Thatcherism? The link between ideas and the Thatcher government has frequently been over-generalized and under-specified. Existing accounts tend to characterize neoliberalism as a homogeneous, and often ill-defined, group of thinkers that exerted a broad influence over the Thatcher government. In particular, this study explores how Margaret Thatcher approached special interest groups, a core neoliberal concern. The results demonstrate a willingness to utilize the state, often in contradictory ways, to pursue apparently more market orientated policies. This book - through a combination of archival research, interviews and examination of neoliberal thought itself - defines the dominant strains of neoliberalism more clearly and explores their relationship with Thatcherism.

Disjunctive Prime Ministerial Leadership in British Politics

Disjunctive Prime Ministerial Leadership in British Politics PDF Author: Christopher Byrne
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030449114
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 147

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book illustrates the cyclical pattern in the kinds of dilemmas that confront political leaders and, in particular, disjunctive political leaders affiliated with vulnerable political regimes. The volume covers three major episodes in disjunction: the interwar crisis between 1923 and 1940, afflicting Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald and Neville Chamberlain; the collapse of Keynesian welfarism between 1970 and 1979, dealt with by Edward Heath, Harold Wilson and James Callaghan; and the ongoing crisis of neoliberalism beginning in 2008, affecting Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May. Based on this series of case studies of disjunctive prime ministers, the authors conclude that effective disjunctive leadership is premised on judicious use of the prime ministerial toolkit in terms of deciding whether, when and where to act, effective diagnostic and choice framing, and the ability to manage both crises and regimes.

When Ideas Matter

When Ideas Matter PDF Author: Bilal A. Baloch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009032461
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Get Book Here

Book Description
Comparativist scholarship conventionally gives unbridled primacy to external, material interests–chiefly votes and rents–as proximately shaping political behaviour. These logics tend to explicate elite decision-making around elections and pork barrel politics but fall short in explaining political conduct during credibility crises, such as democratic governments facing anti-corruption movements. In these instances, Baloch shows, elite ideas, for example concepts of the nation or technical diagnoses of socioeconomic development, dominate policymaking. Scholars leverage these arguments in the fields of international relations, American politics, and the political economy of development. But an account of ideas activating or constraining executive action in developing democracies, where material pressures are high, is found wanting. Resting on fresh archival research and over 120 original elite interviews, When Ideas Matter traces where ideas come from, how they are chosen, and when they are most salient for explaining political behaviour in India and similar contexts.

The Oxford Companion to American Politics

The Oxford Companion to American Politics PDF Author: David Coates
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019976431X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1141

Get Book Here

Book Description
Provides students and scholars with a valuable reference source in the field of American Politics. The Companion will equip readers with a deep understanding of the complex interaction between governmental institutions and processes and the wider American economy and society that they govern.

Ideas, Political Power, and Public Policy

Ideas, Political Power, and Public Policy PDF Author: Daniel Beland
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315517795
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book Here

Book Description
Through the last couple of decades, scholars on both sides of the Atlantic have increasingly emphasized the importance of political ideas in understanding processes of change and stability in politics and public policy. Yet, surprisingly, relatively little has been done to more clearly and stringently conceptualize the relationship between political power and the role of ideas in public policy and political development. This volume addresses this major lacuna in the policy and political studies literature by bringing some of best scholars in the field, who each write about the relationship between ideas and power in politics and public policy. The contributions frame the concept of ideational power and explore ways in which ideas shape power relations, across a number of distinct countries and policy areas. The topics covered include austerity, coalition building, monetary policy, social policy, tax policy, and macroeconomic indicators. The volume features a short introduction written by the co-editors, and a final, recapitulative essay prepared by Mark Blyth, one of the most cited scholars in the field. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

Clement Attlee

Clement Attlee PDF Author: John Bew
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190203404
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 705

Get Book Here

Book Description
John Bew explores the intellectual foundations and core beliefs of the man who defeated Winston Churchill and created the england we know today.

Handbook of Global Economic Governance

Handbook of Global Economic Governance PDF Author: Manuela Moschella
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136582878
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 534

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since the summer of 2007, the world scenario has been dominated by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis and its repercussions on global financial markets and economic growth. As banks around the world wrote down their losses and governments intervened to rescue domestic financial institutions, financial distress severely hit the real economy leading to what has been widely defined as the worst recession since the 1930s. Under these conditions, along with the immediate concern for stemming the effects of the crisis, policy-makers around the world have been debating the long-term measures that have to be adopted in order to reduce the likelihood of future crises and to ensure stable economic growth. Although this debate has not yet produced significant transformations, it indicates a renewed concern about the institutional architecture that is meant to govern the global economic and financial system. This book tackles the issue of what the governance of the global economic and financial system looks like and what the prospects for its reform are. Specifically, the book will address the following three main themes: Governance: What is governance in the international economic system? What forms does it take? How did it come about? How can we study it?; Functions of governance: What are the functions of global economic governance? Who performs them? What are the rules and mechanisms that make global governance possible? Problems and prospects of governance: What are the problems in global economic governance? Is there a trade-off between legitimacy and efficiency? What are the prospects for reform of global economic governance in the aftermath of the global financial crisis? This book will: _ Provide a thorough analysis of the issues at stake in designing international rules and institutions able to govern the global economy; _ Illustrate and analyze virtually all the main institutions, rules, and arrangements that make up global economic governance, inscribing them within the function these institutions, rules, and arrangements are meant to perform; _ Discuss the problems that affect today’s global economic governance and assess alternative proposals to reform the international financial architecture.

A neoliberal revolution?

A neoliberal revolution? PDF Author: Hugh Pemberton
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526146517
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book examines the Thatcher government’s attempt to revolutionise Britain’s pensions system in the 1980s and create a nation of risk-taking savers with an individual stake in capitalism. Drawing upon recently-released archival records, it shows how the ideas motivating these reforms journeyed from the writings of neoliberal intellectuals into government and became the centrepiece of a plan to abolish significant parts of the UK’s welfare state and replace these with privatised personal pensions. Revealing a government that veered between political caution and radicalism, the book explains why this revolution failed and charts the malign legacy left by the evolutionary changes that ministers salvaged from the wreckage of their reforms. The book contributes to understanding of policy change, Thatcherism, and international neoliberalism by showing how major reforms to social security could reflect neoliberal thought and yet profoundly disappoint their architects.

Austerity from the Left

Austerity from the Left PDF Author: Bremer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192872214
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book Here

Book Description
Austerity became the predominant fiscal policy response to the Great Recession in Europe. After a brief period of 'emergency Keynesianism' from 2008 to 2010, even the centre-left abandoned plans for deficit spending and accepted austerity as the dogma of the day. In this book, Björn Bremer explains how this came about and explores its political consequences, combining qualitative and quantitative methods and drawing on a wide range of empirical evidence to study both the demand- and supply-side of politics. Based on this evidence, the book argues that a complex interaction of electoral and ideational pressures pushed social democratic parties towards orthodox fiscal policies. As government debt became a taboo following the Greek sovereign debt crisis, social democratic parties endorsed austerity to increase their perceived economic competence and fiscal credibility. This decision was legitimized by economic ideas inspired by supply-side economics, which had become popular among social democrats at the end of the twentieth century. Although the book shows that social democratic austerity was not inevitable, powerful feedback effects of the Third Way thus trapped and divided the centre-left during the crisis. This undermined the ability of social democratic parties to oppose austerity and eventually contributed to their electoral crisis in the shadow of the Great Recession.