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113-670: Britoil plc was originally a privatised British oil company operating in the North Sea . It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index . The company was acquired by BP in 1988, becoming a brand of it. The company was originally formed in 1975 as the British National Oil Corporation ( BNOC ), a nationalised body, under the provisions of the Petroleum & Submarine Pipe-lines Act 1975 . Its objective

226-435: A "People's Inquiry into Privatisation" (2016/17) found that the impact of privatisation on communities was negative. The report from the inquiry "Taking Back Control" made a range of recommendations to provide accountability and transparency in the process. The report highlighted privatisation in healthcare, aged care, child care, social services, government departments, electricity, prisons and vocational education featuring

339-452: A 1979 Marxism Today article. However, this is not true as Tony Heath first used the term in an article he wrote that appeared in Tribune on 10 August 1973. Writing as Tribune ' s education correspondent, Heath wrote: "It will be argued that teachers are members of a profession which must not be influenced by political considerations. With the blight of Thatcherism spreading across

452-612: A characteristic of Thatcherism, Thatcher was far from consistent on the issue, only becoming truly Eurosceptic in the last years of her time as prime minister. Thatcher supported Britain's entry into the European Economic Community in 1973, campaigned for a "Yes" vote in the 1975 referendum and signed the Single European Act in 1986. Towards the end of the 1980s, Thatcher (and so Thatcherism) became increasingly vocal in its opposition to allowing

565-407: A concept. Society is made up of people. It is people who have duties and beliefs and resolve. It is people who get things done. [Thatcher] prefers to think in terms of the acts of individuals and families as the real sinews of society rather than of society as an abstract concept. Her approach to society reflects her fundamental belief in personal responsibility and choice. To leave things to society

678-480: A conservative social system based on traditional morality. There would still be a minimal safety net for the poor, but the major emphasis was on encouraging individual effort and thrift . Thatcherism sought to minimise the importance of welfare for the middle classes and reinvigorate Victorian bourgeois virtues. Thatcherism was family centred, unlike the extreme individualism of most neoliberal models. It had its roots in historical experiences such as Methodism and

791-599: A dash of populism . Thatcherism attempts to promote low inflation, the small state and free markets through tight control of the money supply , privatisation and constraints on the labour movement . It is often compared with Reaganomics in the United States, economic rationalism in Australia and Rogernomics in New Zealand and as a key part of the worldwide economic liberal movement. Thatcherism

904-414: A form of a secured loan and are criticized as a "particularly noxious form of governmental debt". In this interpretation, the upfront payment from the privatization sale corresponds to the principal amount of the loan, while the proceeds from the underlying asset correspond to secured interest payments—the transaction can be considered substantively the same as a secured loan, though it is structured as

1017-753: A more cautious and nuanced evaluation of privatization" and that "private ownership alone is no longer argued to automatically generate economic gains in developing economies". According to a 2008 study published in Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics , liberalization and privatization have produced mixed results. Although typically there are many costs associated with these efficiency gains, many economists argue that these can be dealt with by appropriate government support through redistribution and perhaps retraining . Yet, some empirical literature suggests that privatization could also have very modest effects on efficiency and quite regressive distributive impact. In

1130-486: A natural and inevitable societal correction emerges to undermine the contradictions of capitalism. This was the case in the 2000 Cochabamba protests . Privatization in Latin America has invariably experienced increasing push-back from the public. Mary Shirley from The Ronald Coase Institute suggests that implementing a less efficient but more politically mindful approach could be more sustainable. In India,

1243-468: A nineteenth-century Liberal". As Ellen Meiksins Wood has argued, Thatcherite capitalism was compatible with traditional British political institutions. As prime minister, Thatcher did not challenge ancient institutions such as the monarchy or the House of Lords , but some of the most recent additions, such as the trade unions. Indeed, many leading Thatcherites, including Thatcher herself, went on to join

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1356-471: A particular set of principles and also by some of her friends who had little sympathy for what he called "the English political tradition" because it facilitated "compromise and consensus". Utley argued that a free and competitive economy, rather than being an innovation of Thatcherism, was one "more or less permanent ingredient in modern Conservative philosophy": It was on that principle that Churchill fought

1469-578: A political platform emphasising free markets with restrained government spending and tax cuts that gets coupled with British nationalism both at home and abroad. Thatcher herself rarely used the word "Thatcherism". However, she gave a speech in Solihull during her campaign for the 1987 general election and included in a discussion of the economic successes the remark: "that's what I call Thatcherism". The Daily Telegraph stated in April 2008 that

1582-401: A process of deregulation . The term may also be used descriptively for something that has always been private, but could be public in other jurisdictions. There are also private entities that may perform public functions. These entities could also be described as privatized. Privatization may mean the government sells state-owned businesses to private interests, but it may also be discussed in

1695-493: A sale. This interpretation is particularly argued to apply to recent municipal transactions in the United States, particularly for fixed term, such as the 2008 sale of the proceeds from Chicago parking meters for 75 years. It is argued that this is motivated by "politicians' desires to borrow money surreptitiously", due to legal restrictions on and political resistance to alternative sources of revenue, viz, raising taxes or issuing debt. Privatization had different outcomes around

1808-457: A sound start in life—yes, cheated. The law was opposed by many gay rights advocates such as Stonewall and OutRage! . Tony Blair's Labour government repealed it in 2000 (in Scotland) and 2003. Conservative prime minister David Cameron later issued an official apology for previous Conservative policies on homosexuality, specifically the introduction of the controversial Section 28 laws from

1921-478: A specialist in ancient history, posits that economic inequality and wealth concentration in the top percentile "had been made possible by the transfer of state assets to private owners." In Latin America, on the one hand, according to John Nellis's research for Center for Global Development , economic indicators, including firm profitability, productivity, and growth, project positive microeconomic results. On

2034-625: A stock market with high capital. Voucher privatization occurred mainly in the transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe, such as Russia , Poland , the Czech Republic , and Slovakia . Additionally, privatization from below had made important contribution to economic growth in transition economies. In one study assimilating some of the literature on "privatization" that occurred in Russian and Czech Republic transition economies,

2147-741: A survey by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) – Utilization of Free Medical Services by Children Belonging to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in Private Hospitals in New Delhi, 2011–12: A Rapid Appraisal – indicates under-utilization of the free beds available for EWS category in private hospitals in Delhi, though they were allotted land at subsidized rates. In Australia

2260-476: A systematic, decisive rejection and reversal of the post-war consensus inside Great Britain in terms of governance, whereby the major political parties largely agreed on the central themes of Keynesianism , the welfare state , nationalised industry , and close regulation of the British economy before Thatcher's rise to prominence. Under her administration, there was one major exception to Thatcherite changes:

2373-401: A table while saying "this is what we believe". In contrast to previous government policy, monetarism placed a priority on controlling inflation over controlling unemployment. According to monetarist theory, inflation is the result of there being too much money in the economy. It was claimed that the government should seek to control the money supply to control inflation. By 1979, it was not only

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2486-412: A transition to "effective private sector owners [of former] state assets". Rather than mainly participating in a market economy, these individuals could prefer elevating their personal status or prefer accumulating political power. Instead, outside foreign investment led to the efficient conduct of former state assets in the private sector and market economy. Through privatization by direct asset sale or

2599-460: A translation of a German speech referring to the potential for German state railroads to be bought by American companies. In German, the word Privatisierung has been used since at least the 19th century. Ultimately, the word came to German through French from the Latin privatus . The term reprivatization , again translated directly from German ( Reprivatisierung ), was used frequently in

2712-614: Is all too similar to Reaganism : free-market rhetoric masking statist content". Stuart McAnulla said that Thatcherism is actually liberal conservatism , a combination of liberal economics and a strong state. Another important aspect of Thatcherism is the style of governance. Britain in the 1970s was often referred to as "ungovernable". Thatcher attempted to redress this by centralising a great deal of power to herself as prime minister, often bypassing traditional cabinet structures (such as cabinet committees). This personal approach also became identified with personal toughness at times, such as

2825-696: Is associated with libertarianism within the Conservative Party, albeit one of libertarian ends achieved by using strong leadership. British political commentator Andrew Marr has called libertarianism the "dominant, if unofficial, characteristic of Thatcherism". Whereas some of her heirs, notably Michael Portillo and Alan Duncan , embraced this libertarianism, others in the Thatcherite movement such as John Redwood sought to become more populist . Some commentators have argued that Thatcherism should not be considered properly libertarian. Noting

2938-448: Is influenced by the capital market and the political and firm-specific factors. Privatization through the stock market is more likely to be the method used when there is an established capital market capable of absorbing the shares. A market with high liquidity can facilitate the privatization. If the capital markets are insufficiently developed, however, it would be difficult to find enough buyers. The shares may have to be underpriced, and

3051-590: Is more prevalent in non-privatized sectors. Furthermore, according to the World Bank extralegal and unofficial activities are more prevalent in countries that privatized less. Other research suggests that privatization in Russia resulted in a dramatic rise in the level of economic inequality and a collapse in GDP and industrial output. Russian President Boris Yeltsin 's IMF -backed rapid privatization schemes saw half

3164-615: Is the reason why in Great Britain in the mid 1980s the members of the top decile possessed more than a half of all the wealth. To justify this by means of economic "objectivities" would be an ideology. What is at play here are interests and power. The Conservative historian of Peterhouse , Maurice Cowling , also questioned the uniqueness of "Thatcherism". Cowling claimed that Thatcher used "radical variations on that patriotic conjunction of freedom, authority, inequality, individualism and average decency and respectability, which had been

3277-465: Is the sale of a state-owned enterprise or municipally owned corporation to private investors; in this case shares may be traded in the public market for the first time, or for the first time since an enterprise's previous nationalization . This type of privatization can include the demutualization of a mutual organization , cooperative , or public-private partnership in order to form a joint-stock company . Separately, privatization can refer to

3390-490: Is thus often compared to classical liberalism . Milton Friedman said that "Margaret Thatcher is not in terms of belief a Tory. She is a nineteenth-century Liberal ". Thatcher herself stated during a speech in 1983: "I would not mind betting that if Mr Gladstone were alive today he would apply to join the Conservative Party". In the 1996 Keith Joseph memorial lecture, Thatcher argued: "The kind of Conservatism which he and I [...] favoured would be best described as 'liberal', in

3503-495: Is to run away from the real decisions, practical responsibility and effective action. Thatcherism is associated with a conservative stance on morality . Sutcliffe-Braithwaite (2012) argues that Thatcherism married conservatism with free-market economics . Thatcherism did not propose dramatic new panaceas such as Milton Friedman's negative income tax . Instead, the goal was to create a rational tax-benefit economic system that would increase British efficiency while supporting

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3616-524: The 2011 revolution , most of the public began to call for re-nationalization, citing allegations of the privatized firms practicing crony capitalism under the old regime. There are various reasons why a government may decide to privatize; commonly due to economic reasons. The economic factors that influence a government's decision to privatize assume this will lower government debt. Studies have shown that governments are more likely to privatise with higher public debt, typically because governments do not have

3729-764: The Clement Attlee government's post-war reforms, there was continuous right-wing opposition in the lower ranks of the party, in right-wing pressure groups like the Middle Class Alliance and the People's League for the Defence of Freedom and later in think tanks like the Centre for Policy Studies . For example, in the 1945 general election , the Conservative Party chairman Ralph Assheton had wanted 12,000 abridged copies of The Road to Serfdom (a book by

3842-535: The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher when many state-run firms were sold off to the private sector. The privatization received very mixed views from the public and the parliament. Even former Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan was critical of the policy, likening it to "selling the family silver". There were around 3 million shareholders in Britain when Thatcher took office in 1979 , but

3955-583: The European Commission argues that privatisation in Europe had mixed effects on service quality and has achieved only minor productivity gains, driven mainly by lower labour input combined with other cost cutting strategies that led to a deterioration of employment and working conditions. Meanwhile, a different study by the commission found that the UK rail network (which was privatized from 1994 to 1997)

4068-472: The European Community to supersede British sovereignty. In a famous 1988 Bruges speech, Thatcher declared: "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level, with a European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels". It is often claimed that the word Thatcherism was coined by cultural theorist Stuart Hall in

4181-636: The Falklands War in 1982, the IRA bomb at the Conservative conference in 1984 and the miners' strike in 1984–85. Sir Charles Powell , the foreign affairs private secretary to the Prime Minister (1984–1991 and 1996), described her style as such: "I've always thought there was something Leninist about Mrs Thatcher which came through in the style of government: the absolute determination,

4294-648: The National Health Service (NHS), which was widely popular with the British public. In 1982, Thatcher promised that the NHS was "safe in our hands". The exact terms of what makes up Thatcherism and its specific legacy in British history over the past decades are controversial. Ideologically, Thatcherism has been described by Nigel Lawson , Thatcher's Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1983 to 1989, as

4407-614: The Revolutions of 1989 introduced non-communist governments. Freedom House's privatization index, 1998 and 2002 Freedom House 's privatization index rated transition countries from 1 (maximum progress) to 7 (no progress). The table below shows the privatization index for various Eastern European countries in 1998 and 2002: The largest public shares offering in France involved France Télécom . Egypt undertook widespread privatization under Hosni Mubarak . Following his overthrow in

4520-667: The private sector , and the women in the public sector are more likely to be unionized than those in the private sector. In Chile, women are disproportionately affected by the privatization of the pension system because factors such as "women's longer life expectancy, earlier retirement age, and lower rates of labor-force participation, lower salaries" affect their ability to accumulate funds for retirement which leads to lower pensions. Low-income women face an even greater burden; Anjela Taneja, of Oxfam India says "The privatization of public services...implies limited or no access to essential services for women living in poverty, who are often

4633-462: The public sector borrowing requirement is held down by the ruse of subtracting the proceeds of privatisation as well as taxes from government expenditure. The principles of monetarism have been abandoned". Thatcherism is also associated with supply-side economics . Whereas Keynesian economics holds that the government should stimulate economic growth by increasing demand through increased credit and public spending, supply-side economists argue that

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4746-475: The 1945 election, having just read Hayek's Road to Serfdom . [...] What brought the Tories to 13 years of political supremacy in 1951 was the slogan 'Set the people free'. [...] There is absolutely nothing new about the doctrinal front that she presents on these matters. [...] As for 'privatisation', Mr. Powell proposed it in [...] 1968. As for 'property-owning democracy', I believe it was Anthony Eden who coined

4859-612: The 1980s during her time as prime minister, the Thatcher government enacted Section 28 , a law that opposed the "intentional promotion" of homosexuality by local authorities and "promotion" of the teaching of "the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship" in schools. In her 1987 speech to the Conservative Party conference, Thatcher stated: Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay ... All of those children are being cheated of

4972-568: The 1980s, viewing past ideological views as "a mistake" with his ideological direction . Regarding feminism Thatcher said "The feminists hate me, don't they? And I don't blame them. For I hate feminism. It is poison" and "I owe nothing to Women's lib ". In May 1988, Thatcher gave an address to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland . In the speech, Thatcher offered a theological justification for her ideas on capitalism and

5085-472: The Austrian-American management expert Peter Drucker 's 1969 book, The Age of Discontinuity . The word privatization may mean different things depending on the context in which it is used. It can mean moving something from the public sphere into the private sphere, but it may also be used to describe something that was always private, but heavily regulated, which becomes less regulated through

5198-569: The Conservative Party held a dinner in London Hilton to honour the anniversary. During the dinner, several speeches were given. To Thatcher's astonishment, the Conservatives had decided that it was time to shelve the economic policies of the 1980s. The Conservative Party leader at the time, William Hague , said that the party had learnt its lesson from the 1980s and called it a "great mistake to think that all Conservatives have to offer

5311-590: The Conservative Party's theme since at least 1886". Cowling further contended that the "Conservative Party under Mrs Thatcher has used a radical rhetoric to give intellectual respectability to what the Conservative Party has always wanted". Historians Emily Robinson, Camilla Schofield, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Natalie Thomlinson have argued that by the 1970s, Britons were keen on defining and claiming their individual rights, identities and perspectives. They demanded greater personal autonomy and self-determination and less outside control. They angrily complained that

5424-461: The House of Lords, an honour which William Ewart Gladstone , for instance, had declined. Thinkers closely associated with Thatcherism include Keith Joseph , Enoch Powell , Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. In an interview with Simon Heffer in 1996, Thatcher stated that the two greatest influences on her as Conservative leader had been Joseph and Powell, who were both "very great men". Thatcher

5537-485: The Labour Party from 1983 to 1992, initiated Labour's rightward shift across the political spectrum by largely concurring with the economic policies of the Thatcher government. The New Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were described as "neo-Thatcherite" by some on the left since many of their economic policies mimicked those of Thatcher. In 1999, twenty years after Thatcher had come to power,

5650-701: The Nazi Party." Great Britain privatized its steel industry in the 1950s, and the West German government embarked on large-scale privatization, including sale of the majority stake in Volkswagen to small investors in public share offerings in 1961. However, it was in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the United States that privatization gained worldwide momentum. Notable privatization attempts in

5763-608: The Russian population fall into destitution in just several years as unemployment climbed to double digits by the early to mid 1990s. A 2009 study published in The Lancet medical journal has found that as many as a million working men died as a result of economic shocks associated with mass privatization in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe during the 1990s, although a further study suggested that there were errors in their method and "correlations reported in

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5876-690: The Taoist clergy that a strong ruler was virtually invisible. During the Renaissance , most of Europe was still by and large following the feudal economic model. By contrast, the Ming dynasty in China began once more to practice privatization, especially with regards to their manufacturing industries. This was a reversal of the earlier Song dynasty policies, which had themselves overturned earlier policies in favor of more rigorous state control. In Britain,

5989-626: The Thatcherites arguing for stricter inflation control. The Labour Chancellor Denis Healey had already adopted some monetarist policies, such as reducing public spending and selling off the government's shares in BP . Moreover, it has been argued that the Thatcherites were not strictly monetarist. A common theme centres on the Medium Term Financial Strategy, issued in the 1980 budget, which consisted of targets for reducing

6102-406: The UK included privatization of Britoil (1982), the radioactive-chemicals company Amersham International (1982), British Telecom (1984), Sealink ferries (1984), British Petroleum (gradually privatized between 1979 and 1987), British Aerospace (1985 to 1987), British Gas (1986), Rolls-Royce (1987), Rover Group (formerly British Leyland , 1988), British Steel Corporation (1988), and

6215-443: The anti-socialist economist Friedrich Hayek later closely associated with Thatcherism), taking up one-and-a-half tons of the party's paper ration, distributed as election propaganda. The historian Christopher Cooper traced the formation of the monetarist economics at the heart of Thatcherism back to the resignation of the Conservative chancellor of the Exchequer, Peter Thorneycroft , in 1958. As early as 1950, Thatcher accepted

6328-612: The assumption that foreign investment would play a major role. In post- reunification East Germany, by the end of June 1992, the Treuhandanstalt had privatized 8,175 companies, with 5,950 left on hand (4,340 remaining to be sold and the remainder to be liquidated). June 1992 was also when the last East German on the board of the Treuhand left. By the end of 1994, Treuhand had sold almost everything, having only 65 firms left to privatize as of December 1994. More than 80% of

6441-445: The authors identified three methods of privatization: "privatization by sale", "mass privatization", and "mixed privatization". Their calculations showed that "mass privatization" was the most effective method. However, in economies "characterized by shortages" and maintained by the state bureaucracy, wealth was accumulated and concentrated by "gray/black market" operators. Privatizing industries by sale to these individuals did not mean

6554-418: The belief that there's a vanguard which is right and if you keep that small, tightly knit team together, they will drive things through ... there's no doubt that in the 1980s, No. 10 could beat the bushes of Whitehall pretty violently. They could go out and really confront people, lay down the law, bully a bit". By 1987, after Thatcher's successful third re-election, criticism of Thatcherism increased. At

6667-495: The consensus of the day about the welfare state, claiming the credit belonged to the Conservatives in a speech to the Conservative Association annual general meeting. Biographer Charles Moore states: Neither at the beginning of her career nor when she was prime minister, did Margaret Thatcher ever reject the wartime foundations of the welfare state, whether in health, social policy or education. In this she

6780-784: The context of the privatization of services or government functions, where private entities are tasked with the implementation of government programs or the performance of government services. Gillian E. Metzger has written that: "Private entities [in the US] provide a vast array of social services for the government; administer core aspects of government programs; and perform tasks that appear quintessentially governmental, such as promulgating standards or regulating third-party activities." Metzger mentions an expansion of privatization that includes health and welfare programs, public education, and prisons. The history of privatization dates from Ancient Greece , when governments contracted out almost everything to

6893-512: The cost of bureaucracy was one of the reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire . Perhaps one of the first ideological movements towards privatization came during China 's golden age of the Han dynasty . Taoism came into prominence for the first time at a state level, and it advocated the laissez-faire principle of Wu wei (無為), literally meaning "do nothing". The rulers were counseled by

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7006-714: The countries suggest that a large segment of the public is dissatisfied with or have negative views of privatization in the region. In the 1990s, the governments in Eastern and Central Europe engaged in extensive privatization of state-owned enterprises in Eastern and Central Europe and Russia, with assistance from the World Bank , the U.S. Agency for International Development, the German Treuhand , and other governmental and non-governmental organization . Nippon Telegraph and Telephone 's privatization in 1987 involved

7119-610: The end of 1990. While credited with reviving Britain's economy, Thatcher also was blamed for spurring a doubling of the relative poverty rate. Britain's childhood-poverty rate in 1997 was the highest in Europe. When she resigned in 1990, 28% of the children in Great Britain were considered to be below the poverty line , a number that kept rising to reach a peak of nearly 30% during the government of Thatcher's successor, John Major . During her government, Britain's Gini coefficient reflected this growing difference, going from 0.25 in 1979 to 0.34 in 1990, at about which value it remained for

7232-467: The establishment was withholding it. They argue that this shift in concerns had helped cause Thatcherism and was incorporated into its appeal. Critics of Thatcherism claim that its successes were obtained only at the expense of great social costs to the British population. There were nearly 3.3 million unemployed in Britain in 1984, compared to 1.5 million when she first came to power in 1979, though that figure had reverted to 1.6 million by

7345-543: The fear of the too-powerful state that had troubled Hayek. Norman Tebbit , a close ally of Thatcher, laid out in a 1985 lecture what he thought to be the permissive society that conservatives should oppose: Bad art was as good as good art. Grammar and spelling were no longer important. To be clean was no better than to be filthy. Good manners were no better than bad. Family life was derided as an outdated bourgeois concept. Criminals deserved as much sympathy as their victims. Many homes and classrooms became disorderly; if there

7458-597: The first attempt at a social welfare analysis of the British privatization program under the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major during the 1980s and 1990s, Massimo Florio points to the absence of any productivity shock resulting strictly from ownership change. Instead, the impact on the previously nationalized companies of the UK productivity leap under the Conservatives varied in different industries. In some cases, it occurred prior to privatization, and in other cases, it occurred upon privatization or several years afterward. A 2012 study published by

7571-439: The functioning of the free economy". Several commentators have traced the origins of Thatcherism in post-war British politics. The historian Ewen Green claimed there was resentment of the inflation, taxation and the constraints imposed by the labour movement, which was associated with the so-called Buttskellite consensus in the decades before Thatcher came to prominence. Although the Conservative leadership accommodated itself to

7684-543: The government should instead intervene only to create a free market by lowering taxes, privatising state industries and increasing restraints on trade unionism. Reduction in the power of the trades unions was made gradually, unlike the approach of the Edward Heath government, and the most significant single confrontation with the unions was the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) strike of 1984–1985, in which

7797-502: The growth of the money supply in the following years. After overshooting many of these targets, the Thatcher government revised the targets upwards in 1982. Analysts have interpreted this as an admission of defeat in the battle to control the money supply. The economist C. F. Pratten claimed that "since 1984, behind a veil of rhetoric, the government has lost any faith it had in technical monetarism. The money supply, as measured by M3 , has been allowed to grow erratically, while calculation of

7910-476: The industrial and economic reforms of the Thatcher period" and as well that "much of what she wanted to do in the 1980s was inevitable, a consequence not of ideology but of social and economic change." [A] mixture of free markets , financial discipline , firm control over public expenditure , tax cuts , nationalism , " Victorian values " (of the Samuel Smiles self-help variety ), privatisation and

8023-473: The land that is a luxury that only the complacent can afford". Although the term had been widely used before then, not all social critics have accepted the term as valid, with the High Tory journalist T. E. Utley believing "There is no such thing as Thatcherism". Utley contended that the term was a creation of Thatcher's enemies who wished to damage her by claiming that she had an inflexible devotion to

8136-483: The largest share offering in financial history at the time. 15 of the world's 20 largest public share offerings have been privatizations of telecoms. In 1988, the perestroika policy of Mikhail Gorbachev started allowing privatization of the centrally planned economy. Large privatization of the Soviet economy occurred over the next few years as the country dissolved . Other Eastern Bloc countries followed suit after

8249-496: The market economy. She said, "Christianity is about spiritual redemption, not social reform", and she quoted St. Paul by saying, "If a man will not work he shall not eat". Choice played a significant part in Thatcherite reforms, and Thatcher said that choice was also Christian, stating that Jesus Christ chose to lay down his life and that all individuals have the God-given right to choose between good and evil . Whilst Thatcher

8362-399: The mid-1930s as The Economist reported on Nazi Germany's sale of nationalized banks back to public shareholders following the 1931 economic crisis. The word became common in the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher's economic policies . She was drawing on the work of the pro-privatization Member of Parliament David Howell , who was himself drawing on

8475-400: The middle of the 1930s. The firms belonged to a wide range of sectors: steel, mining, banking, local public utilities, shipyard, ship-lines, railways, etc. In addition to this, delivery of some public services produced by public administrations prior to the 1930s, especially social services and services related to work, was transferred to the private sector, mainly to several organizations within

8588-471: The miners' union was eventually defeated. Evidence shows that the Conservative Party and the NUM anticipated this confrontation with the trade unions. The outcome contributed to the resurgence of the power of capital over labour . All too often the ills of this country are passed off as those of society. Similarly, when action is required, society is called upon to act. But society as such does not exist except as

8701-467: The more competitive the industry, the greater the improvement in output, profitability, and efficiency. Such efficiency gains mean a one-off increase in GDP , but through improved incentives to innovate and reduce costs also tend to raise the rate of economic growth . More recent research and literature review performed by Professor Saul Estrin and Adeline Pelletier concluded that "the literature now reflects

8814-408: The needed time to wait for a return. Another economic factor that influences this area is the resulting efficiency of SOEs once privatised. Commonly, governments aren’t able to provide the required investments required to ensure profitability for various reasons. These factors may lead to a government deciding to privatize. There are several main methods of privatization: The choice of sale method

8927-527: The next 20 years, under both Conservative and Labour governments. The extent to which one can say Thatcherism has a continuing influence on British political and economic life is unclear. It could be said that a "post-Thatcherite consensus" exists in modern British political culture, especially regarding monetary policy. In the 1980s, the now defunct Social Democratic Party adhered to a "tough and tender" approach in which Thatcherite reforms were coupled with additional welfare provisions. Neil Kinnock , leader of

9040-442: The old-fashioned sense. And I mean the liberalism of Mr Gladstone, not of the latter day collectivists ". Thatcher once told Friedrich Hayek : "I know you want me to become a Whig; no, I am a Tory". Hayek believed "she has felt this very clearly". The relationship between Thatcherism and liberalism is complicated. Thatcher's former defence secretary John Nott claimed that "it is a complete misreading of her beliefs to depict her as

9153-446: The ones more in need of these services." The increase in privatization since the 1980s has been a factor in rising income and wealth inequality in the United States. Due to low levels of native capital accumulation in the former Central and Eastern Europe, the rapid privatization preferred by international institutions ( EBRD , IMF , World Bank ) and other foreign banks was a de facto call for international bidding, reflecting

9266-689: The original article are simply not robust." A subsequent body of scholarship, while still controversial, demonstrates that rapid privatization schemes associated with neoliberal economic reforms did result in poorer health outcomes in former Eastern Bloc countries during the transition to markets economies, with the World Health Organization contributing to the debate by stating "IMF economic reform programs are associated with significantly worsened tuberculosis incidence, prevalence, and mortality rates in post-communist Eastern European and former Soviet countries." Historian Walter Scheidel ,

9379-430: The other hand, however, privatisation has been largely met with a negative criticism and citizen coalitions. This neoliberal criticism highlights the ongoing conflict between varying visions of economic development. Karl Polanyi emphasizes the societal concerns of self-regulating markets through a concept known as a "double movement". In essence, whenever societies move towards increasingly unrestrained, free-market rule,

9492-399: The party conference that her third term was to be about 'social affairs'. During her last three years in power, she attempted to reform socialised welfare, differing from her earlier stated goal of "rolling back the state". Thatcherism is associated with the economic theory of monetarism , notably put forward by Friedrich Hayek 's The Constitution of Liberty which Thatcher had banged on

9605-426: The phrase. In foreign policy, Utley claimed Thatcher's desire to restore British greatness did not mean "primarily a power devoted to the preservation of its own interests" but that she belonged "to that militant Whig branch of English Conservatism...her view of foreign policy has a high moral content". In practical terms, he claimed this expressed itself in her preoccupation with "the freedom of Afghanistan rather than

9718-483: The principles of the British government under Thatcher from the 1979 general election to her resignation in 1990 . In international terms, Thatcherites have been described as a part of the general socio-economic movement known as neoliberalism , with different countries besides the United Kingdom (such as the United States) sharing similar policies around expansionary capitalism . Thatcherism represents

9831-611: The private sector. In the Roman Republic private individuals and companies performed the majority of services including tax collection ( tax farming ), army supplies ( military contractors ), religious sacrifices and construction. However, the Roman Empire also created state-owned enterprises —for example, much of the grain was eventually produced on estates owned by the Emperor. David Parker and David S. Saal suggest that

9944-464: The private sector. In the 1990s, privatization revenue from 18 Latin American countries totaled 6% of gross domestic product. Private investment in infrastructure from 1990 and 2001 reached $ 360.5 billion, $ 150 billion more than in the next emerging economy. While economists generally give favorable evaluations of the impact of privatization in Latin America, opinion polls and public protests across

10057-887: The privatization of common lands is referred to as enclosure (in Scotland as the Lowland Clearances and the Highland Clearances ). Significant privatizations of this nature occurred from 1760 to 1820, preceding the Industrial Revolution in that country. The first mass privatization of state property occurred in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1937: "It is a fact that the government of the National Socialist Party sold off public ownership in several state-owned firms in

10170-575: The privatized businesses were bought by foreigners (chiefly West Germans – 75%). Romania's first privatization took place on 3 August 1992. There was "very little" privatization during 1992: only 22 state-owned enterprises were privatized. The pace picked up throughout the following year, with more than 260 companies privatized. Four of the 22 enterprises privatized in 1992 were sold to foreign investors. In 1993, 265 companies were privatized, followed by 604 in 1994. Two companies were sold to foreign investors during this period, one each in 1993 and 1994. At

10283-598: The programme of the next non-Conservative government, with Tony Blair 's " New Labour " organisation governing the nation throughout the 1990s and 2000s, basically accepted the central reform measures of Thatcherism such as deregulation , privatisation of key national industries, maintaining a flexible labour market , marginalising the trade unions and centralising power from local authorities to central government. While Blair distanced himself from certain aspects of Thatcherism earlier in his career, in his 2010 autobiography A Journey , he argued both that "Britain needed

10396-487: The purchase of all outstanding shares of a publicly traded company by private equity investors, which is more often called "going private" . Before and after this process the company is privately owned, but after the buyout its shares are withdrawn from being traded at a public stock exchange . The term privatizing first appeared in English, with quotation marks, in the New York Times , in April 1923, in

10509-428: The regional water authorities (mostly in 1989). After 1979, council house tenants in the UK were given the right to buy their homes (at a heavily discounted rate). One million purchased their residences by 1986. Such efforts culminated in 1993 when British Rail was privatized under Thatcher's successor, John Major . British Rail had been formed by prior nationalization of private rail companies. The privatization

10622-425: The sale of the state-owned companies. Those with political connections unfairly gained large wealth, which has discredited privatization in these regions. While media have widely reported the grand corruption that accompanied those sales, according to research released by the World Bank there has been increased operating efficiency, daily petty corruption is, or would be, larger without privatization, and that corruption

10735-504: The sales may not raise as much capital as would be justified by the fair value of the company being privatized. Many governments, therefore, elect for listings in more sophisticated markets, for example, Euronext , and the London , New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges. Governments in developing countries and transition countries more often resort to direct asset sales to a few investors, partly because those countries do not yet have

10848-437: The security of Ulster". Such leftist critics as Anthony Giddens claim that Thatcherism was purely an ideology and argue that her policies marked a change which was dictated more by political interests than economic reasons: Rather than by any specific logic of capitalism, the reversal was brought about by voluntary reductions in social expenditures, higher taxes on low incomes and the lowering of taxes on higher incomes. This

10961-404: The splitting off of Britoil Lord Croham, the deputy chairman of BNOC, became chairman of BNOC's trading activities (1982–85). This article about a natural gas or petroleum-related company is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This corporation or company article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Privatised Another definition is that privatization

11074-701: The start of 1999, 4,330 companies were left to be privatized, with 5,476 having been sold during 1993–1998. At the end of 1998, only 2.4% of privatized companies had foreign participation. Arguments for and against the controversial subject of privatization are presented here. Thatcherism Defunct [REDACTED] Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character and style of management while in office. Proponents of Thatcherism are referred to as Thatcherites . The term has been used to describe

11187-411: The stock market, bidders compete to offer higher prices, generating more revenue for the state. Voucher privatization, on the other hand, could represent a genuine transfer of assets to the general population, creating a sense of participation and inclusion. A market could be created if the government permits transfer of vouchers among voucher holders. Some privatization transactions can be interpreted as

11300-434: The subsequent sale of state-run firms saw the number of shareholders double by 1985. By the time of her resignation in 1990, there were more than 10 million shareholders in Britain. Privatization in Latin America was extensive in the 1980s and 1990s, as a result of a Western liberal economic policy. Companies providing public services such as water management , transportation, and telecommunications were rapidly sold off to

11413-458: The tendency towards strong central government in matters concerning the trade unions and local authorities, Andrew Gamble summarised Thatcherism as "the free economy and the strong state". Simon Jenkins accused the Thatcher government of carrying out a nationalisation of Britain. Libertarian political theorist Murray Rothbard did not consider Thatcherism to be libertarian and heavily criticised Thatcher and Thatcherism, stating that "Thatcherism

11526-495: The time, Thatcher claimed it was necessary to tackle the "culture of dependency" by government intervention to stop socialised welfare. In 1988, she caused controversy when she made the remarks, "You do not blame society. Society is not anyone. You are personally responsible" and, "Don't blame society – that's no one." These comments attracted significant criticism, including from other conservatives due to their belief in individual and collective responsibility. In 1988, Thatcher told

11639-402: The voices of workers, community members and academics. Some reports show that the results of privatization are experienced differently between men and women for numerous reasons: when public services are privatized women are expected to take on the health and social care of dependents , women have less access to privatized goods, public sector employs a larger proportion of women than does

11752-556: The world. Results of privatization may vary depending on the privatization model employed. According to Irwin Stelzer , "it is somewhere between difficult and impossible to separate the effects of privatisation from the effects of such things as trends in the economy". According to research performed by the World Bank and William L. Megginson in the early 2000s, privatization in competitive industries with well-informed consumers, consistently improved efficiency. According to APEC ,

11865-507: Was a strong critic of communism , Marxism and socialism . Biographer John Campbell reports that in July 1978, when asked by a Labour MP in Commons what she meant by socialism, "she was at a loss to reply. What in fact she meant was Government support for inefficient industries, punitive taxation, regulation of the labour market, price controls – everything that interfered with

11978-410: Was controversial, and its impact is still debated today , as doubling of passenger numbers and investment was balanced by an increase in rail subsidy . This has been reverted by the same party in Britain in the early 2020s with the state-owned Great British Railways . The United Kingdom's largest public share offerings were privatizations of British Telecom and British Gas during the 1980s under

12091-464: Was less radical than her critics or some of her admirers supposed. Her concern was to focus more on abuse of the system, on bureaucracy and union militancy, and on the growth of what later came to be called the dependency culture, rather than on the system itself. Historian Richard Vinen is sceptical about there being Thatcherism before Thatcher. Thatcher saw herself as creating a libertarian movement, rejecting traditional Toryism . Thatcherism

12204-609: Was most improved out of all the 27 EU nations from 1997 to 2012. The report examined a range of 14 different factors and the UK came top in four of the factors, second and third in another two and fourth in three, coming top overall. Nonetheless, the impact of the privatisation of British Rail has been the subject of much debate, with the stated benefits including improved customer service, and more investment; and stated drawbacks including higher fares, lower punctuality and increased rail subsidies. Privatizations in Russia and Latin America were accompanied by large-scale corruption during

12317-422: Was neither right nor wrong there could be no basis for punishment or reward. Violence and soft pornography became accepted in the media. Thus was sown the wind; and we are now reaping the whirlwind. Despite her association with social conservatism , Thatcher voted in 1966 to legalise homosexuality, one of the few Conservative MPs to do so. That same year, she also voted in support of legal abortion. However, in

12430-603: Was prime minister, she greatly embraced transatlantic relations with US president Ronald Reagan . She often publicly supported Reagan's policies even when other Western allies were not as vocal. For example, she granted permission for American planes to use British bases for raids, such as the 1986 United States bombing of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , and allowed American cruise missiles and Pershing missiles to be housed on British soil in response to Soviet deployment of SS-20 nuclear missiles targeting Britain and other Western European nations. While Euroscepticism has for many become

12543-466: Was sold to British Petroleum in 1988. Britoil's Production entitlement and financial summary was as follows: In the same year, the company had been subject of an attempted £23 million fraud by one of its own cashiers. Chairman and Chief Executive: Baron Kearton (Christopher Frank Kearton) (1975–79), Ronald Utiger (1979–1980), Sir Philip Shelbourne (July 1980 – 1988), Sir Robin Duthie (1988–90). After

12656-510: Was substantially under-subscribed. The resultant losses were carried by underwriters. The remaining Government minority shareholding in Britoil was sold in November 1985 for £434 million, ensuring it kept a 'Golden Share' in order to veto any outsourcing attempts. The collapse in world oil prices globally, combined with the possession of Britoil's majority share by BP meant that the golden share

12769-479: Was to maintain adequate oil supply levels. Britoil's interest in UK oil and gas fields in 1982 was as follows. As a result of the Oil and Gas (Enterprise) Act 1982 , BNOC was split to enable the trading sector of the company BNOC to remain nationalised whilst the oil exploration and production sector, Britoil, was a limited liability company. In November 1982, 51% of Governmental shares in Britoil were sold off, however

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