Crafting Change. 

            Labor Market Policy

            Under Margaret Thatcher.

 

 

Dr. Nigel Boyle

by

NIGEL

BOYLE

 (Pitzer College, USA)

 

      

THE DEFINITIVE STUDY

ON MARGARET THATCHER'S SOCIAL POLICY

 

Although the Conservative Party has been out of office since 1997 the legacy of the 1979-90 Thatcher governments is enduring.   

Tony Blair’s governments have only modestly modified the labor market policy reforms (encompassing the regulation of industrial

 relations and employment law as well welfare benefits and training and employment programming) introduced by the Thatcher

 governments.  This book sets out what the Thatcher governments changed and explains the mixed pattern of incremental and

 paradigmatic changes that occurred.

 

Incremental policy change results from institutional adaptation.  Radical change results from a process of institutional "exaptation":

 institutional resources are used to lever in new policy paradigms.  Without exaptive mechanisms radical efforts will often go awry. 

 Looked at as a neo-liberal economic reform package Thatcherite “recommodification” of the labor market went seriously awry,

 refracted in a series of unexpected directions.  However, the "politics of recommodification" were those of Conservative party

 statecraft not neo-liberal economics. 

 

As such, the considerable success of this project was determined by the institutional homology of Conservative Party statecraft with

 the British state and British capitalism.  The concept of party "statecraft" is preferred over that of ideology as it stresses the way

in which goals are framed within institutions.  The primary logic in policy change was one ofinstitutional consonance rather than

 choice. 

 

This book makes three major contributions to the literature.  First, it conceptualizes "policy change" in a new and more rigorous

 way.  Second, it advances new political institutionalist theory by (i) defining the role of "governance structures" in determining public

 policy and (ii) elaborating on the way in which "institutional learning" occurs.  Third, it uses a novel form of case study methodology

 - selecting out a set of 18 "choice opportunities" to explore different sorts (different "levels") of change.

 

 

                                                                               TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

 

   7

Chapter 1

 

Policy, Policy Change and the Causes of Policy Change:                                                             An Organizational Approach           

  17

A. State, Society, Policy Networks and Policy Change         

  18

B. Organization Theory and Conceptualizing Policy, Change,

and Policy Processes

 

  21

C. Policy Networks and Labor Market Policy in Britain        

  27

D. Framework for the Empirical Chapters

  32

 

 

Chapter 2

 

British Politics and “Embedded Toryism”: A New Hermeneutic             

  39

A. State Tradition, Capitalism and the Conservative Party in Britain

  40

The Anomalous State

  40

British Capitalism: A New New Institutionalist Interpretation

  44

Political Economy and the Conservative Party:                                               From Laissez Faire to Collectivism

  49

B. Contemporary State-Society Relations and Thatcherite Statecraft

  55

Thatcherism and the State

  55

British Capitalism and Thatcherism

  58

Tory Statecraft and Its Thatcherite Metamorphoses

  61

C. “Embedded Toryism” and Labor Market Policy Networks

  68

D. “Embedded Toryism” In Comparative Perspective:

          A Party-Centric Approach to British Political Economy

 

  73

Chapter 3

 

Change, Stasis, and Accretion:                                                                                                              The Uneven Institutional Topography of the British Labor Market

  83                  83

A. “Crafting Change” in Historical Perspective

  84

The Tudor Labor Code

  84

Liberal Capitalism and the Commodification of Labor

  87

20th Century “Collectivist” Reform

  89

The Precocious Welfare State 1940-47

  92

B. “Fordism Without Miracles”: Regulation and the Post-War Settlement

  96

C. “Post-Fordism” and Labor Market Flexibility

102

D. Labor Market Problems and the Thatcher Governments

105

The Legal Framework

107

The Fiscal Framework

111

 

 

Chapter 4

 

Industrial Relations Policy: The Unions’ Acquired Immunity Deficiency

121

A. Industrial Relations Policy: Paradigms and Routines

122

Paradigms: The Downfall of “Matching Power”

and Collective Laissez Faire                       

122

Routines: Association, Industrial Action and “Rule Book Autonomy”

127

B. Industrial Relations problems and the Policy Agenda 1979-90

131

C. Industrial Relations Policy Initiatives  

134

Case 1 The 1980 Employment Act: Modesty and Implementability

134

Case 2 The 1982 Employment Act: Removing Trade

Union Immunities and the Doctrine of Workplace Confinement

142

Case 3 The 1984 Trade Union Act:

“Giving The Unions Back To Their Members”

149

149

Case 4 The 1988 Employment Act:

            Tightening The Snare

 156

Case 5 Making Collective Bargaining Legally Binding:

            Aborted Initiative

 161

D. Conclusions: The Union’s Acquired Immunity Deficiency

162

       Appendices

169

 

Chapter 5

 

Active Labor Market Policy:                                                                                            Engineering with the Manpower Services Commission             

 187

A. Active Labor Market Policy: Paradigms and Routines    

188

The Manpower Services Commission as Paradigm Peddler 

188

Routines: The Manpower Services Commission as Juggler

197

B. Active Labor Market Policy Problems and the Policy Agenda 1979-90

201

C. Active Labor Market Policy Initiatives               

204

Case 6.   The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) 1981-2                               

204

Case 7.   The Community Programme (CP) 1982-3                  

214

Case 8.   Two-Year YTS 1985-6

218

Case 9.   Employment Training (ET) 1987-8

221

Case 10. Training and Laissez Faire: Aborted Initiative

224

D. Conclusions: Thatcherite Dirigisme

225

 

 

Chapter 6

 

The Benefits System: Dislodging Beveridge

245

A. The Benefits System: Paradigms and Routines                 

246

Paradigms: The Rise and Belated Fall of Beveridge               

246

Routines: Contributory and Non-Contributory Benefits

253

B. Benefits System Problems and the Policy Agenda 1979-90

258

C. The Benefits System Policy Initiatives                

261

Case 11 Unemployment Benefit and Mass Unemployment 1980-81:

Automatic Pilot in a Snowstorm

 261

Case 12  The Treasury and Supplementary Benefit 1983-5:

Aborted Initiatives and ‘Socialism In One Underclass’        

 270

Case 13  The 1986 Social Security Act and Targeting           

280

Case 14  Instituting a Work-Welfare System 1988-89:

Finding a Trojan Horse               

 281

D. Conclusions: Dislodging Beveridge

289

 

 

Chapter 7

 

Employment Law: Unburdening Business      

311

A. Employment Law: Paradigms and Routines                       

312

Paradigms: The Contract of Employment and “Reciprocity”                               

312

Routines: Fair Wages, Sweated Trades and Minimal Rights               

319

B. Employment Law Problems and the Policy Agenda 1979-90           

322

C. The Employment Law Policy Initiatives              

326

Case 15 Weakening of Unfair Dismissal Legislation 1979-80               

326

Case 16 Rescission of Fair Wages Resolution 1982-3:

Dislocating Public Sector Unionism         

 335

Case 17 The 1986 Wages Act:

Weakening the Wages Council System    

 344

Case 18 The Aborted Abolition of Enployment Law             

351

D. Conclusions: Lifting Burdens from Business

353

 

 

Conclusion:  The Institutional Bases of Radical Policy Change in Britain

367

Bibliography

387


 

 

 

NIGEL BOYLE is Professor of Political Studies at Pitzer College, USA.  He received his Ph.D. from Duke University.  He is the author of FAS and Active Labour Market Policy. His expertise areas are European and Comparative Politics; The Welfare State; and Labor Unions.

NIGEL BOYLE is currently working on a new book, State Capacity and the Irish Labor Market Model, 1987-2007, to be completed in 2008.

 

ISBN  1-931948-45-3

409 pages

 2007

$49.95

HOME    OUR CURRENT CATALOG    HOW TO ORDER

NEW TITLES BY SERIES    ACADEMIC PROPOSAL   

AUTHOR GUIDE  FICTION PROPOSAL

NEW TITLES BY COVERS

 

wpe4E.jpg (4420 bytes)