Much of the literature on reform politics has focused on social democratic governments. This article reexamines the dynamics of reform by concentrating on conservative governments in four advanced industrial democracies during the 1980s: Britain, Canada, the United States, and West Germany. Conservative governments have attempted to dismantle well-institutionalized systems of government intervention in market economies. The authors argue that the structure of national political institutions is of central importance in explaining variation across these cases in government goals, strategies, and success rates. This article also stresses the need to consider the distinctive characteristics of different policy arenas. Governments found market-oriented reforms considerably easier to implement in some policy arenas than in others.
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