Thatcherism’s contradictory template has dominated British politics ever since

Evidence

This was the end of the book but not quite the end of the story. The crises in the seventies were to be followed by the world-shattering political accession of Mrs. Thatcher—“There is no such thing as society”—and the blitzkrieg launched by “Thatcherism,” with its contradictory authoritarian and neoliberal, strong state/free market impulses, on the social fabric. In transmuted forms, this doubly inscribed template has since dominated British society and politics (in Conservative, New Labour, and Coalition governments alike). Few believed that this was a historic turning point. They defined it as another of the usual swings of the political pendulum. But those of us who had heard the ugly sound of an old conjuncture unraveling, watched the crisis unfold, understood its populist roots and its long-term hegemonic project, were in a position to know differently. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1068

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Gramscian notions of conjuncture and hegemony in Hall’s own earlier essays; resonates with reader’s interest in how ideas translate into political-economic power.
• SEED: Angle: how ‘authoritarian populism’ as a framework explains why apparent swings left (New Labour, Coalition) preserved a Thatcherite template — usable piece on the persistence of hegemonic projects.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: what specific mechanisms let an ‘authoritarian neoliberal’ template reproduce across nominally different governments?