Doing less by doing more: British government 1979–1993

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Abstract
Britain has developed a long tradition of close co‐operation between government and interest groups, with the consequent erosion of the distinction between ‘public’ and ‘private’. However, the election of Mrs Thatcher's Conservative Government in 1979 saw a determined challenge, both to established groups and to the established ‘policy style’. A new, more active and impositional style of government was attempted, with few institutions and organisations escaping scrutiny. The new approach was characterised by a desire to introduce new rules of the game in many policy areas, a determination to change organisational cultures in both the public and the private sectors, and a wish to change resource allocation mechanisms. Far from introducing a retreat of the state, this new policy style has seen a more interventionist and centralised state in operation. The system may have gyroscopic tendencies, however, in that a gradual return to more familiar state/society relations may be taking place.

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