Thatcherism gained power through active popular consent, not mere class domination

Evidence

What he identified was the specificity of the new historical bloc (in Gramsci’s terminology) that Thatcher had succeeded in constructing—and for which she had been able to win a great deal of active popular consent—in a moment when the old discourses of both the traditional Labour and Conservative parties were coming to be seen to be incapable of addressing the problems of the new era. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 972

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduced the Gramscian ‘historical bloc’ concept and what distinguishes it from simple electoral victory.
• XREF: Connects to Gramsci’s hegemony and historical bloc concepts as mobilized across Cultural Studies.
• SEED: Angle: how consent-based political formations outlast electoral defeats — applying the historical bloc lens to any current regime.