Thatcherism - Ideology (Assessment) Flashcards
Who did Thatcher call ‘one of the greatest intellects of the 20th century’?
Friedrich Von Hayek
Hayek’s writing provided Margaret Thatcher with the philosophical justification for what they said to the British public. The morality of individual responsibility of the able for the welfare of himself and his family is still the basis for most _____ judgements of action.
Moral
HAYEK: For progress towards its aims, socialism needs government with unlimited powers…In such a system various groups must be given, not what a majority thinks they deserve, but what these groups think they are entitled to.
By this Hayek meant that people should be paid what others are willing to pay for their services and it is wrong for society to try to put a value on those services. Therefore, ‘There is no “______ to society”.
Value
Hayek was also critical of “social justice”
HAYEK: When government interference is demanded in the name of social justice this now means, more often than not, the demand for the protection of the existing relative position of some ______. “Social justice” has thus become little more than a demand for the protection of vested interests and the creation of new privilege, such as when in the name of social justice the farmer is assured “parity” with the industrial worker.
Group
When we turn to equality, it should be said at once that true individualism is not equalitarian in the modern sense of the word. It can see no reason for trying to make men equal as distinct from treating them equally. While individualism is profoundly opposed to all prescriptive privilege, to all protection, any law or force, of any rights not based on rules equally applicable to all persons, it also denies government the right to limit what the _____ or fortunate may achieve.
Able
Thatcherites found support for their determination to reduce the monopolistic power of the trades unions:
HAYEK: The monopolistic practices which threaten the functioning of the market are today much more serious on the side of ______ than on the side of enterprise, and the preservation of the market order will depend much more than on anything else, on whether we succeed in curbing the former.
Labour
Hayek saw society’s function as encouraging individual activity and protecting diversity. This was in sharp contrast to the ________ who felt society should be fundamentally concerned with shepherding or persuading people towards achieving the common good.
Socialist
