This term paper examines the extent to which Margaret Thatcher’s term in office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1979 to her forced resignation in 1990, affected (conservative) British politics.
It is divided into six chapters. After a brief introduction in chapter 1, an introductory review of literature on contemporary British politics will be presented in chapter 2, with an account of the three distinctive Politics that characterized the period between 1940 and 1990, followed by a brief presentation on Conservatism. Chapter 3 comprises an analysis of what has become known as Thatcherism and includes presentations on Margaret Thatcher as a person and of her political and economic ideals. Chapter 4 will offer some comparisons of the differences and similarities between Conservatism as an ideology and how it has been implemented under Thatcher, considering whether ‘Thatcherism’ exists as a pure political doctrine. Chapter 5 will present a conclusion on the findings from the topics covered in this paper and the final section 6 contains references.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Literature review
2.1 Introductory background to British politics 1940 - 1990
2.1.1 Consensus politics 1940 – 1955
2.1.2 Consensus politics endangered 1955 – 1979
2.1.3 The Thatcher era 1979 – 1990
2.2 Conservatism explained
3 Thatcherism
3.1 Introductory political biography of Margaret Thatcher 1925 - 2013
3.2 Political and economic ideology
4 Conservatism vs. Thatcherism in Contemporary British politics
5 Conclusion
6 References