Der Thatcher-Konsens. Der Einsturz der britischen Nachkriegsordnung in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren

Abstract

Thatcher's Consensus. The Collapse of British Post-war Order in the 1970s and 1980s

This article examines the political, economic and social transformations in Great Britain during the 1970s and 1980s under the aspect of whether its development was unique in the twentieth century. The article argues that, in Great Britain, the Europe-wide structural crisis during these two decades was not limited to smaller or larger adaptations in economic, social and constitutional policies, as it was elsewhere, but led to a radical rearrangement of the political system of coordinates in the form of Thatcherism. The fact that the upheavals it induced in the economic system and in society took place within the established institutions and rules of the uncodified constitution belongs to the most remarkable aspects of Thatcherism. During her tenure as Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher largely succeeded in her goal of revolutionising the British economic and social order – even some times in ways other than she and her advisors intended. Concurrently, Thatcherism of brought about the change from a consensual to a confrontational mode of problemsolving within the existing constitutional framework. Many contemporaries perceived this as nothing less than a shift in the political system.