title: The crisis of the British welfare state.
abstract: This paper analyzes the implications of the rightward shift currently underway in the advanced capitalist world for the future of the welfare state. The Thatcher government in Britain is examined as a paradigm case of this new conservatism. The quantitative cuts in social spending as well as the quantitative shifts in social policy and ideological reversals of recent years are detailed, and the contradictions of both Thatcherism and its predecessor--social democratic reformism--are exposed from the perspective of Marxist political economy. A postscript attempts to explain the continuing popularity of Thatcherism in contemporary Britain despite the devastating effects of its policies.
mesh_terms: D003363:Cost Control; D005380:Financing, Government; D011056:Political Systems; D011640:Public Policy; D012946:Social Welfare / Q000639:trends*; D013222:State Medicine / Q000191:economics*; D006113:United Kingdom