Thatcherism fused free-market individualism with ethnic nationalism and authoritarian policing

Evidence

Thatcherite populism is a particularly rich mix. It combines the resonant themes of organic Toryism—nation, family, duty, authority, standards, traditionalism—with the aggressive themes of a revived neoliberalism—self-interest, competitive individualism, anti-statism. Some of these elements had been secured in earlier times through the grand themes of One-Nation popular Conservatism: the means by which Toryism circumnavigated democracy, lodged itself in the hearts of the people and lived to form many another popular government. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1112 (#expands, via linked claim)

Neither Keynesianism nor monetarism, however, wins votes as such in the electoral marketplace. But, in the discourse of “social market values,” Thatcherism discovered a powerful means of translating economic doctrine into the language of experience, moral imperative, and common sense, thus providing a “philosophy” in the broader sense—an alternative ethic to that of the “caring society.” This translation of a theoretical ideology into a populist idiom was a major political achievement: and the conversion of hard-faced economics into the language of compulsive moralism was, in many ways, the centerpiece of this transformation. “Being British” became once again identified with the restoration of competition and profitability; with tight money and sound finance (“You can’t pay yourself more than you earn!!”)—the national economy projected on the model of the household budget. The essence of the British people was identified with self-reliance and personal responsibility, as against the image of the overtaxed individual, enervated by welfare-state “coddling,” his or her moral fiber irrevocably sapped by “state handouts.” This assault, not just on welfare over-spending, but on the very principle and essence of collective social welfare—the centerpiece of consensus politics from the Butskell period onward—was mounted, not through an analysis of which class of the deserving made most out of the welfare state, but through the emotive image of the “scrounger”: the new folk-devil. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1110 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Thatcherism fused authoritarian state power with free-market neoliberalism; Thatcherism is authoritarian populism, not fascism, retaining popular consent; Thatcherism fused organic Tory nationalism with neoliberal free-market ideology into a new language. (+9 more)

Related

• Thatcherism fused organic Tory nationalism with neoliberal free-market ideology into a new language. (similarity 0.95)
• Thatcherism fused authoritarian state power with free-market neoliberalism (similarity 0.92)
• Thatcherism is authoritarian populism, not fascism, retaining popular consent (similarity 0.91)
• Thatcherism fused organic Toryism with revived neoliberalism into a single ideology (similarity 0.87)
• Reading a conjuncture’s populist roots early enabled accurate prediction of Thatcherism (similarity 0.85)
• Thatcherism fuses free-market economics with organic Tory traditionalism into one ideology. (similarity 0.84)
• Thatcherism translated economic doctrine into populist moral common sense (similarity 0.84)
• PTC’s crisis analysis anticipated Thatcherism’s contradictory authoritarian and neoliberal template (similarity 0.84)
• Thatcherism was a global phase of capitalism disguised as nationalism (similarity 0.82)
• Thatcherism’s contradictory template has dominated British politics ever since (similarity 0.80)
• Thatcherism conquered the abstract neutral state by recasting it as the enemy (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Thatcherism fused organic Toryism with revived neoliberalism into a single ideology #expands (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1112
• Thatcherism fuses free-market economics with organic Tory traditionalism into one ideology. #expands (0.80)
• Thatcherism translated economic doctrine into populist moral common sense #expands (0.60) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1110
• Racially conscious working-class nationalism emerged from English class formation #exemplifies (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 234
• PTC’s crisis analysis anticipated Thatcherism’s contradictory authoritarian and neoliberal template #corroborates (0.50)
• Ethnic nationalism within the party defeated Americanizing Marxism #corroborates (0.50)
• Supranationalist class identity among English workers retreated before nationalism #corroborates (0.50)