Thatcherism: A Tale of Two Nations

In this critical discussion of the debates surrounding Margaret Thatcher, the first part presents a general review of the account of Thatcherism developed by academics and economic and political analysts from the mid-70s, and part two situates and reproduces a debate on the subject between Stuart Hall and the authors. In the third part the authors relate the issues raised by competing accounts of Thatcherism to some of the key theoretical and methodological problems in current social and political analysis such as - structure and agency, state-centred versus society-centred approaches to politics, the relative autonomy of the political, the role of class interests and social movements.