Research on the Privatization Policies of the Thatcher Government

Author: Mao Rui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Privatization was a worldwide conservative wave that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The privatization policies of the UK Thatcher government were the "leading force" of this wave, covering a broad scope with significant achievements, making it a typical example in developed countries. Thus, the UK was called the "largest testing ground for Western privatization." This book starts from a broad concept of privatization, placing Thatcher's government privatization policies within the larger context of post-war British historical development for an empirical historical examination. It explores the privatization process in the UK during the 1980s and its profound impact and influence on British society, thereby revealing new developments in the self-regulation and self-improvement of contemporary capitalism. As of now, the UK has successfully escaped the "British disease" economically through privatization, creating what is known as the "British miracle." Politically, it broke the old "consensus" formed after World War II and established a new "consensus," reshaping the UK and laying the foundation for its development in the 21st century. The implementation of privatization in the UK was fundamentally a positive response to the wave of globalization and an inevitable result of productivity development. At the same time, privatization was also a means for the UK and other Western developed countries to improve national economic functions, adjust industrial structures, and reorganize state-owned assets. It represented a new adjustment in the relationship between the market and the state, a top-down reform of capitalist production relations adapting to the development of social productivity, and a form of self-regulation and self-improvement of capitalism. Western privatization also provided some lessons for China's reform and opening-up.