Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism were 2 sets of ideas that generally promoted
economic liberalism and social conservatism in response to the crisis of the 1970s
in the USA and UK. The combination was called the New Right and it swept Margaret Thatcher
and Ronald Reagan to power in 1979 and 1981 respectively.
To recap, the 1970s UK crisis was characterised by: high inflation, socialist/trade union
militancy, high unemployment and supposed moral laxity due to more visible homosexuality
and a skyrocketing divorce rate. One other thing to note was the moral panic caused by rebellious
youth, the media published stories on subversive rock and roll and mods not to mention skinheads,
hippies, punks all taking industrial amounts of drugs. Indeed drug use only peaked in the 1990s.
The USA was facing a similar crisis in that decade, but no Party embodied Conservatism there
but rather conservative Democrats and Conservative republicans. Conservatism had always emphasised
individual liberty and social conservatism there much more. Increasingly this view filtered across
the Atlantic to Uk Conservatives. There it slowly replaced the postwar consensus dogma
that emphasised full employment and high state control of industry, exemplified by the National
Economic Development Council that brought bosses, government and trade unions together. Thatcher
would famously call her New Right allies the ‘drys’ and the One Nation-ers the ‘wets.’
The policies which many now think brought Britain from crisis to prosperity were a mixture.
There were neoliberal ones: lower taxes, small government, individual freedom,
laissez faire economics and neoconservative ones:
an authoritative state, emphasis on family and community and Judeo Christian morality.
Some say this mixture
was a fudge but actually these 2 sets of ideas complemented each other.
For example, neoliberalism supported greater individual freedom but this would lead to greater
inequality as people’s talent is unleashed. Now, in steps neoconservatism which wants to better
fund the police and army to have a strong state to ensure order. Where would this funding come from?
From voluntary, neoconservative communities caring for the people that used to be cared
for by state welfare. And a cherished neoliberal aim of lowering taxation is justified socially,
as well as economically. Her government’s policies like reducing the top tax rate from
83% to 40 % and also selling council houses to their tenants were thus rooted in both ideas.
Finally, it’s good to point out that small c conservatism is not radical, by definition it
wants measured, gradual change. Which is why many though the New Right wasn’t conservative at all.
But what its supporters said was that One Nationers
HADN’T been conservative enough in the 1940s and all we were really doing
was returning to the UK’s great free market, Judaeo christian roots.