Privatization in Great Britain under the Thatcher Government

The victory of the Conservatives in the 1979 General Election brought a government into office which is traditionally said to pursue a programme of economic liberalism. The new government was determined to end British economic decline and the crisis of state authority by making an ideological and political break with the policy of consensus. But it was only after September 1981, when "the dries" achieved dominance in Conservative Government and the new liberal policy finally prevailed. Their goals were to reduce the role of the government in economy, to start privatization of nationalised industries and to achieve reduction in the size and scope of welfare state. This objective became an important part of Thatcher's second- and third-term economic policy. This thesis describes how the particular factors influenced the privatization programmes. The main aim is to answer the question whether the delays in privatization programmes were given by objective obstruction by Thatcher's political opponents and interest groups or whether "the dries" themselves did not support denationalization of strategic industries. The privatization is examined and brought into context of fiscal and monetary policy to unveil the role of privatization in Thatcher's economic policy. The success of privatization is limited by regulations imposed on denationalized industries and the author of this thesis puts emphasis on the description of the extent to which the members of the conservative party supported free market. The author uses a description of various privatization programmes, including related political and economical discussions, to answer these questions. The thesis includes a description of popular capitalism and a connection between foreign policy and privatization as well as the author's evaluation of privatization program.