Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T01:17:25.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mrs. Thatcher's Employment Prescription: An Active Neo-Liberal Labor Market Policy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

David Brian Robertson
David Brian Robertson
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and Center for Metropolitan Studies University of Missouri–St. Louis
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Though each of the capitalist democracies has developed a similar battery of programs for mitigating labor market problems, politically significant differences in strategy underlie superficial similarities. By the 1970s, labor market strategies could be distinguished by three models: a passive social democratic or guardian strategy (Britain), an active social democratic or egalitarian strategy (Sweden), and a passive neo-liberal or business-centered strategy (United States). In response to high unemployment, the Thatcher government has resurrected a long dormant fourth strategy that combines neo-liberal principles with an active state. This active neo-liberal or market-centered approach seeks a workforce that is less organised, has greater wage disparities, and is more adaptable to business needs. The government's activism is evident in the growth of the Manpower Services Commission, both in absolute terms and relative to passive compensatory measures. Its neo-liberalism is evident in reducing structural impediments to lower wages, increasing incentives for individual initiative, and revamping employment and training schemes along neo-liberal lines. These efforts correlate with decreasing levels of union membership, increasing self-employment, and increasing wage disparities in the British economy, trends that are, by the government's criteria, improvements.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , July 1986 , pp. 275 - 296
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Atkinson, A. B. (1975) The Economics of Equality. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bakke, E. W. (1963) A Positive Labor Market Policy. Columbus, Ohio: Charles Merrill Books.Google Scholar
Ball, J. H. (1972) The Implementation of Federal Manpower Policy, 1961–1971: A Study in Bureaucratic Competition and Intergovernmental Relations. Springfield, VA: National Technical Information Service.Google Scholar
Bazen, S. (1985) Goodbye to Wages Councils? New Society, 71:1161 (March) 485–486.Google Scholar
Beveridge, W. H. (1942) Social Insurance and Allied Services. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Beveridge, W. H. (1944) Full Employment in a Free Society. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Bruce-Gardyne, J. (1984) Mrs. Thatcher's First Administration. New York: St. Martin's.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casey, B. and Bruche, G. (1985) Active Labor Market Policy: An International Overview. Industrial Relations, 24:1 (Winter), 37–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castles, F. (1982) The Impact of Parties on Public Expenditure. In Castles, (ed.) The Impact of Parties. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Central Statistical Office (1985 and 1986) Annual Abstract of Statistics. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Coffield, F. (1984) Is There Work after the MSC? New Society, 67:1105 (January 26) 128–130.Google Scholar
Cmnd. 8455 (1981) A New Training Initiative. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Cmnd. 9135 (1984) Training for Jobs. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Cmnd. 9474 (1985) Employment: Challenge for the Nation. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Deakin, D. (1985) ‘The Labour Market and Industrial Relations Policy of the Thatcher Government’. In Bell, D. S. (ed.) The Conservative Government, 1979–1984: An Interim Report. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Department of Employment (1984) Industrial Action and the Law. Pamphlet PL753. London: DE.Google Scholar
Dutton, P. (1984) YTS – Training for the Future. Public Administration, 62:4 (Winter) 483–494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elkin, S. L. (1985) Pluralism in Its Place: State and Regime in the Liberal Democracy. In Benjamin, R. and Elkin, S. L. (eds.) The Democratic State. Lawrence, K.S: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Furniss, N., and Tilton, T. (1977) The Caseforthe WelfareState. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Gamble, A. (1979) The Free Economy and the Strong State: The Rise of the Social Market Economy. Socialist Register, 16: 1–25.Google Scholar
Gamble, A. (1981) Britain in Decline. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gilder, G. (1982) Wealth and Poverty. New York: Bantam Books.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, H. (1983) Full Employment and Public Policy: The United States and Sweden. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Goldthorpe, J. H. (1984) The End of Convergence: Corporatist and Dualist Tendencies in Modern Western Societies. In Goldthorpe, (ed.) Order and Conflict in Contemporary Capitalism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Harris, J. (1977) William Beveridge: A Biography. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hjern, B., and Porter, D. O. (c. 1979) Implementation Structures: A New Unit of Administrative Analysis. Unpublished mimeo. Delivered at Indiana University, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.Google Scholar
Joseph, K. (1976) Stranded on the Middle Ground? London: Centre for Policy Studies.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, P. (1985) Small States in World Markets. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lindblom, C. E. (1982) ‘The Market as Prison’. Journal of Politics, 44:2, 324–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindley, R. (1986) Labour Demand: Microeconomic Aspects of State Intervention. In Hart, P. E., Unemployment and Labour Market Policies. London: Gower.Google Scholar
Manpower Services Commission (1984) Annual Report 1983/84. London: MSC.Google Scholar
Manpower Services Commission (1985a) Corporate Plan, 1985–89. London: MSC.Google Scholar
Manpower Services Commission (1985b) Annual Report 1984/5. London: MSC.Google Scholar
Mardsen, D., and Ryan, P. (1986) Where Do Young Workers Work? Youth Employment by Industry in Various European Economies. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 24:1 (March) 83–102.Google Scholar
Mitchell, N.J. (forthcoming, 1987) Where Traditional Tories Fear to Tread: Mrs. Thatcher's Trade Union Policy. West European Politics.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, J. (1983) Policy Change in Direct Response to U.K. Unemployment. Journal ojPublic Policy, 3:3 (August), 301–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, J. and Richardson, J. J. (1984a) Policy-Making With a Difference? The Technical and Vocational Education Initiative. Public Administration, 62:1 (Spring) 23–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, J., and Richardson, J. J. (1984b) The Unemployment Industry. Policy and Politics, 12:4, 391–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, J., and Richardson, J. J.Unemployment in the UK: Politics and Policies. London: Gower.Google Scholar
Moon, J., Webber, D., and Richardson, J. J. (1986) Linking Policy Areas: IT Education, Training, and Youth Unemployment in the UK and West Germany. Policy and Politics, 14:2, 161–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NIESR (1986) Measures to Reduce Youth Unemployment in Britain, France and West Germany. National Institute Economic Review, 117 (August), 43–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Öhman, B. (1984) LO and Labour Market Policy Since the Second World War. Stockholm: Prisma.Google Scholar
OECD (1974) Manpower Policy in Germany. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
OECD (1979) Unemployment Compensation and Related Employment Policy Measures. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (1985a) New Policies for the Young. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (1985b) Creating Jobs at the Local Level: Local Initiativs for Employment Creation. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (1986) Quarterly Labor Force Statistics 2.Google Scholar
Page, B. I. (1983) Who Gets What From Government? Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polanyi, K. (1944) The Great Transformation. New York: Rinehart.Google Scholar
Pond, C. and Burghes, L. (1986) The Rising Tide of Deprivation. New Society, 76:1216 (April 18) 8–10.Google Scholar
Prais, S. J. (1986) Comment on Chapter 5. In Hart, P. E., Unemployment and Labour Market Policies. London: Gower.Google Scholar
Pressman, J., and Wildavsky, A. (1973) Implementation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rehn, G. (1985) Swedish Active Labor Market Policy: Retrospect and Prospect. Industrial Relations, 24:1 (Winter), 62–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riddell, P. (1983 and 1985) The Thatcher Government. Oxford: Martin Robertson.Google Scholar
Robertson, D. B. (1984) Program Implementation versus Program Design: Which Accounts for Policy ‘Failure’? Policy Studies Review, 3:3–4, 391–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, D. B. (1986) Governing and Jobs: America's Business-Centered Labor Market-Policy. Unpublished mimeo.Google Scholar
Robertson, D. B. (forthcoming, 1987) Labor Market Surgery, Labor Market Abandonment: The Thatcher and Reagan Unemployment Remedies. In Waltman, J. and Studlar, D. (eds.) Policy Convergence? Political Economy in the United States and the United Kingdom. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, J. A. (1942) Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper and Brothers.Google Scholar
Sorrentino, C. (1981) Unemployment in International Perspective. In Showier, B. and Sinfield, A. (eds.) The Workless State. Oxford: Martin Robertson.Google Scholar
Steinbach, C. (1985) Europeans Are Giving Unemployed An Opportunity to Become Entrepreneurs. National Journal, 17:10 (March 9), 527–529.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. (1983) Workers and the New Depression. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (1986) Alternative Uses of Unemployment Insurance (Unpublished Mimeo, March 17).Google Scholar
U.S. Senate, Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Subcommittee on Employment, Poverty, and Migratory Labor (1974) Hearings on Labor Market Policy in Sweden. Washington: GPO.Google Scholar
Winyard, S. (1985) Low Pay. In Bell, D. S. (ed.) The Conservative Government, 1979–1984: An Interim Report. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Zysman, J. (1985) Inflation and the Politics of Supply. In Lindberg, Leon N. and Charles, S. Maier (eds.) The Politics of Inflation and Economic Stagnation. Washington: Brookings.Google Scholar