A neoliberal revolution? Thatcherism and the reform of British pensions

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Synopsis

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.

Book details

Author:
Aled Davies, James Freeman, Hugh Pemberton
ISBN:
9781526146533
Related ISBNs:
9781526146519, 9781526146526, 9781526146519, 9781526146526
Publisher:
Manchester University Press
Pages:
N/A
Reading age:
Not specified
Includes images:
No
Date of addition:
2024-07-08
Usage restrictions:
Copyright
Copyright date:
2024
Copyright by:
N/A 
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Politics and Government, Sociology