Conservative and Labour Economic Policies

Type :

Presentation

Pages :

17 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

01/13/2009

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

Political science

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Summary :

Introduction.
The Thatcher-Major years.
1. The change.
2. Reduction in civil servants.
A new context.
1. Recent economic and social history of the United Kingdom.
2. The political situation in Britain.
3. Left/right division.
4. Globalization.
The Rrse of 'New Labour'.
1. The leader of the maximalists.
2. Socialism and neo-liberalism.
3. M. Thatcher's policies.
4. The party transformation.
5. Vision of Tony Blair.
Analysis of the New Labour.
The characteristics Blair's policies.
1. The third way.
2. Importance on enterprise and fairness.
3. The priorites of third way.
The Limits of Blairism.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.

Abstract

After World War II, a new economic philosophy called "Keynesianism" - different from the "laissez-faire" of old - became prevalent; to his main proponent, John Maynard Keynes (1883-1945), free operation of the market was a good thing but it might prove insufficient to ensure full employment in the long term. The State itself should therefore see to it that effective demand (Keynes attached primary importance to it rather than supply) was always renewed by spending money (expanding the money supply, a policy known as reflation) in order to increase purchasing power and encourage private investment, i.e. rejuvenate economic activity. The government had therefore to be much more interventionist and to operate demand management (which meant economic planning). This is what the labour government did when the core of the economy (steel, coal, airlines, railways, banks, petroleum, telephone logic), seen as too important to be left to the marketplace, was nationalized. For a number of reasons (e.g. large monopolies were to a degree able to insulate their investment and employment policies from central government ones; large amounts of money were invested abroad by the profit-seeking middle-classes), and despite the 1964-1970 labour governments' efforts (an incomes policy, a national plan, devaluation of the pound in 1967), this new approach did not work at all.