Crafting Change

Crafting Change.

Labor Market Policy

Under Margaret Thatcher.

Dr. Nigel Boyle

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