Socialists and the 'New Conservatism'

Abstract

By the crucial test of what it has done for the vast majority of people, the 'new conservatism' whose nature and impact are analysed in this volume has been a grievous failure in the advanced capitalist world wherever it has been in power: the most blatant example of that failure is 'Thatcherism' in Britain. But Reagan in America has also increased poverty, strengthened the repressive apparatus of the state, encouraged managerial authoritarianism, provided a favourable climate for casino capitalism and relied on the arms race to provide fuel for the American economy. After years in power, the 'new conservatism' has left these societies more unequal, more violent, more inhuman and more prone to crisis. However, the new conservatism has at least had one major success it has shifted political debate much further to the right. A great deal that had come to be taken for granted in economic and social terms in the three decades following World War II has since the mid-seventies been powerfully and effectively challenged.