Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Conservatism and Thatcherism
Conservatism and Thatcherism
Conservatism
EXERCISE A1
Decide whether the following statements are true or false.
1. Conservatism seeks to upset the established social order.
2. Conservative royalism stems from a desire to preserve tradition.
3. Conservatives place faith in human integrity.
4. The chief task of politics is the maintenance of law and order.
5. Duties are emphasized more than rights.
6. Political activity promotes stability.
7. Ideological systems are flawed because they are the product of the
human intellect.
8. Conservatism accepts change, provided it has an ideological basis.
9. Conservatism believes that one solution can suit all cultures and
nations.
10. Radical change can cause social upheaval.
EXERCISE A2
Match terms to definitions.
1. status quo 4. populism
2. ancien régime 5. traditionalism
3. royalism 6. private property
62 U N I T 4 CONSERVATISM
1. historic – historical
a) The President made a ________ speech.
b) ‘It is a ________ day for our country today; the military regime
has been overthrown’, the newscaster announced.
c) Social and ________ factors influence the process of political
change.
d) ________ events are often used as landmarks for different
periods in history.
e) ________ films often distort the truth.
f) ________ patterns are difficult to detect.
g) The Ministry of National Heritage tries to preserve ________
buildings.
h) In 1951 there was a ________ meeting of six European leaders
and the foundations of European integration were laid.
i) Socialists have had to come to terms with changing ________
realities.
j) The Treaty on European Union is a document of ________
importance.
2. census – consensus
a) The Prime Minister stated that he believed in ________ politics.
b) A ________ was conducted to collect data on a wide range of
topics.
c) It is difficult to reach a ________ where too many sides are
involved.
d) There is no ________ about the criteria upon which new member
states should be allowed to join the EU.
e) ________ have been taken in Britain since 1801.
64 U N I T 4 CONSERVATISM
poor. Thus, socialism was blamed for killing the goose that laid the
golden eggs (O’Sullivan, 1999: 67).
Among the negative effects of the bloated state created by the
programmes of social democrats and socialists were high taxation to
finance excessive public spending, mass unemployment, inflation and
economic stagnation (Eccleshall et al., 1994: 84). In accordance with the
well-known neoliberal motto, which is to ‘roll back the frontiers of the
state’, the Thatcher government favoured privatization of public sector
companies and deregulation of markets to encourage business. Another
measure taken to reduce the size of the state and to cut down public
spending was the curtailing of social services; a culture of self-help and
individualism was to be developed instead (Goodwin, 1987: 164).
Welfare programmes were seen as counter-productive because they
fostered an ethic of dependence. For instance, state benefits
encouraged people to remain unemployed. In addition, the family had
been destroyed because of the increase in illegitimate births among
young women who could live on state benefits (O’Sullivan, 1999: 68).
This was where economics and ethics converged in Thatcherism.
Private enterprise was associated with personal responsibility, while
welfare dependence was linked to moral permissiveness. Rising crime
rates, drugs, and even sexual promiscuity were seen as manifestations of
the permissive morality fostered by welfare liberalism (Eccleshall et al.,
1994: 85). Therefore, the maintenance of law and order became a
prominent feature of government policy. Law enforcement became
stricter, and the police were increased and their powers were
reinforced. It is evident, then, that as the state became less influential as
an economic actor and welfare provider, so its disciplinary role came to
the fore (Goodwin, 1987: 164-65). The contradiction at the heart of
Thatcherism was precisely this blend of neoliberal and conservative
strands, summed up in the title of Andrew Gamble’s book The Free
Economy and the Strong State (1988).
EXERCISE B1
Read the unfinished statements below, each with four suggested answers or
ways of finishing. You must choose the one you think best reflects the
meaning of the passage above.
EXERCISE B2
Fill in the blanks using the following terms: privatization, modernization, free
market, resources, law and order, deregulation, utilities, big government,
interest, mass, spending, competition, dependence, stagnation.
Use the following prefixes to create English verbs ending in -duce/-duct, then
fill in the blanks with the verbs in their appropriate form. Make spelling
changes where necessary.
Put one of the prefixes above in each of the spaces in the sentences below.
Where necessary, hyphens have been added.
a) to abolish abolition
b) to accede ________
c) to assume ________
d) to compete ________
e) to convert ________
f) to deceive ________
g) to decide ________
70 U N I T 4 CONSERVATISM
h) to describe ________
i) to detain ________
j) to divide ________
k) to elect ________
l) to exclude ________
m) to expand ________
n) to explode ________
o) to intend ________
p) to intervene ________
q) to invade ________
r) to oppose ________
s) to oppress ________
t) to permit ________
u) to persuade ________
v) to produce ________
w) to provoke ________
x) to rebel ________
y) to reduce ________
z) to resolve ________