They both entered office with a declining economy on the brink of recession and their main aims were to secure the country’s wealth. Both Reagan and Thatcher sought to become financially stable economies and both achieved this largely by cutting income tax rigorously making it very difficult for any following administration to raise it thereafter. It was a noteworthy strategy of both administrations to reduce the power of the government. They did this by privatising nationally owned enterprise, dismantling the welfare state and reducing the power of the unions therefore transferring economic power form state back into private hands. Neither managed to curb public spending totally but they did manage to change attitude towards it which transferred to subsequent governments.
Since 1997, there have been many changes in government spending policies. Between 1997-2010, the Labour government used the Golden Rule, fiscal policy of spending as a means for economic growth whereas the coalition government from 2010 - present had introduced huge spending cuts. The first reason as to why government spending policies changed since 1997 is the change in ideologies of the different political parties in government. Blair for example used the golden rule, fiscal policy and other demand-side policies that he would help growth. The labour party between 1997-2010 put their ideologies into practice by increasing spending and borrowing and well as raising taxes.
The Conservatives have not abandoned Thatcherism, with regard to the economy. In 1979, she shifted the country to a speculative market economy away from a manufacturing based economy. The Thatcherite government also privatised energy suppliers, telecommunications and transport services. This was down to her more modern liberal approach, that public services operate more efficiently when privatised. The Tories oppose to partly converting major banks to state ownership during difficult financial times in the UK, sticking to the liberalised economic policies; Cameron hasnât indicated that he will return to the traditional Conservative idea of taxing foreign goods, protectionism.
It also implies that Beverly isn’t interested in money- how expensive the sofa could be- as long as she considers it adequate. In effect, this reveals to us a specific character from the 70’s, possessive, and not valuing money (Act I). Through Beverly and Angela Leigh was able to express how people were in 70’s Britain; not appreciating money that they had. Furthermore, the 70’s are well-known for strikes and power cuts. This is the result of the economy in Britain, which inflated throughout the decade.
This restriction on the citizens goes against two of the three freedoms (social, economic, political) classical liberalism was founded on. As long as trickle-down economics is in effect the rich will only get richer at the expense of the poor “99%”. The nation needs to change for the benefit of its people, movements can bring change. A prime example of a movement bringing change to its nation is the Women’s suffrage movement. In Canada and the United States women fought for their political rights and freedoms.
Upon taking office, Governor Reagan was faced with a substantial budget deficit. To combat this issue, Governor Reagan put a temporary freeze on the hiring of government workers. He also signed a substantial tax increase into law. Despite the tax increase, he was elected to another term in 1970. During this term, the governor worked with the Democratic legislature to enact welfare reform in the State of California.
Have UK Prime Ministers become more presidential in recent years? Post-Thatcher the argument that UK Prime Ministers have become more presidential, has definitely strengthened. Her government set the president that a majority of Prime Ministers and cabinet officials have since followed. Thatcher was the first/most prominent Prime Minister to make her cabinet completely obsolete. She rarely felt the need to consult her cabinet on any ideas or plans with regards to the shaping of England.
• Creating Economic Reform- sought to reform the laissez-faire capitalist system that favored big business. Reformers who wrote about the corruption in business were called muckrakers. • Fostering Efficiency- tried to increase the efficiency of American society. The concept of scientific management ( the effort
This was a first sign that Margaret Thatcher had utterly marked Britain or even the world, seeing as we still refer to her policies as Thatcherism today. Her policies were founded on two main principals. Trying to avert the consensus politics that had been developed in Britain since the Second World War, and emasculating the Trade Unions that had resulted in extremely violent riots in the late 1970s. Thatcher was determined to show that Great Britain had returned ready to defeat the persisting issues that remained in Britain at the time, such as, rising inflation, unemployment, governmental spending, taxes, reversing Keynesianism and giving the British population a bit more freedom to fight and live for themselves. To Scargill’s disappointment, taking charge over the Trade Unions, she put forward the strike ballots to avoid workers from simply walking out of work in protest.
This implied that nothing would stop labour from moving within member states and there will be no discrimination against workers based on their nationality, provided the nation is within the customs union. Even though the European Union has always had a great extent of labour mobility, the reason why the nations already within the union fear the consequences of the extension of the common market for labour after the enlargement are the rising unemployment rates observed in recent years. This is mainly because in the EU the job market has only grown by 0.5% from 1980 to 1993 as opposed to the 1% observed in Japan and the 1.5% observed in the US. This essay will therefore assess the extent to which the fears of the European Union have realistic foundations or not. In order to determine the effects of creating a common market for labour we first must see how wages are determined within these economies and why they differ.