Book Reviews : WAIVING THE RULES: THE CONSTITUTION UNDER THATCHERISM C. Graham and T. Prosser (Eds): Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1988
| Published date | 01 December 1989 |
| DOI | 10.1177/095207678900400309 |
| Date | 01 December 1989 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
53
WAIVING
THE
RULES:
THE
CONSTITUTION
UNDER
THATCHERISM
C.
Graham
and
T.
Prosser
(Eds):
Open
University
Press,
Milton
Keynes,
1988
This
is
a
challenging
book
by
a
group
of
legal
academics,
political
scientists
and
specialists
in
local
government
studies
who
see
the
coming
to
power
of
the
Conservative
Government
.under
Mrs.
Thatcher
in
1979
as
having
been
a
major
change
of
direction -
for
the
worse -
in
British
political
life.
They
point
out
at
the
beginning
of
the
book
that
the
British
constitution
depends
upon
a
shared
set
of
mutual
expectations,
often
unarticulated,
of
what
counts
as
&dquo;good&dquo;
and
&dquo;responsible&dquo;
government
and
that
this
fragile
structure
is
particularly
vulnerable
to
take-over
by
groups
who
do
not
share
these
mutual
expectations.
They
wonder
why
an
ideology
as
radical
as
Thatcherism
should
have
made
no
conscious
attempt
at
systematic
constitutional
reform,
but
answer
their
own
query
with
the
argument
that
it
is
less
a
coherent
political
philosophy
and
much
more
a
&dquo;a
pragmatic
process
responding
to
particular
political
opportunities&dquo;
(p.12).
They
acknowledge
that
Mrs.
Thatcher
has
read,
and
been
influenced
by,
the
writings
of
F.A.
Hayek;
but
on
examining
the
record
of
Thatcherism
over
ten
years
in
office,
they
find
little
evidence
of
Hayekian
concern
with
how
the
state
should
act
or
the
forms
of
legitimate
state
action.
The
heart
of
the
book
deals
quite
well
with
the
now
familiar
story
of
how
Mrs.
Thatcher
set
out
to
reverse
the
seemingly
inevitable
economic
decline
of
Britain,
to
end
the
corporatist
tradition
and
cut
the trade
unions
down
to
size,
to
privatise
an
increasingly
large
proportion
of
the
state
industrial
sector,
to
bind
local
government
in
a
web
of
ever
tighter
financial
controls,
and
to
recreate
a
strong
state
with
the
necessary
authority
to
push
through
radical
reforms
almost
regardless
of
the
opposition.
The
chapters
on
corporatism
and
on
Financial
Regulation
illustrate
in
their
different
spheres
the
ways
in
which
Thatcherite
anti-
corporatist
and
anti-statist
rhetoric
has
not
been
borne
out
in
many
of
the
more
pragmatic
actions
of
the
Conservative
Government.
For
example,
the
Urban
Development
Corporations,
a
new
type
of
Quango,
were
created
to
by-pass
rather
than
enter
into
partnership
with
inner
city
local
authorities,
and
the
Securities
and
Investment
Board,
a
new
type
of
regulatory
body,
was
created
to
regulate
the
cherished
autonomy
of
the
institutions
in
the
newly
liberalised
financial
services
sector.
In
the
latter
case,
Michael
Moran
rightly
points
out
the
irony
that
a
Government
which
claims
to
reject
corporatism
has
put
onto
the
statute
book
a
system
(of
regulation)
which
is
uncannily
like
Schmitter’s
famous
definition
of
corporalist representation.
In
doing
this,
the
Government
has
been
involved
in
a
&dquo;precarious
balancing
act,
the
object
of
which
is
to
use
public
powers
while
minimising
public
accountability&dquo;.
(p.70).
The
chapters
on
privatisation
in
all
its
various
forms
give
the
student
a
comprehensive
account
of
the
many
facets
of
this
policy
and
assess
quite
rigorously
the
extent
to
which
the
claims
for
it
can
be
justified.
Predictably,
the
authorities
reach
the
conclusion
that
in
spite
of
the
rhetoric,
the
Government
has
not
been
able
to
stand
back
entirely
form
the
need
to
intervene
on
political
or
regulatory
grounds
in
the
newly
privatised
industries,
and
they
are
scathing
about
the
potential
of
share-holder
power
as
a
viable
alternative
to
state
ownership
and
Ministerial
control.
In
examining
this,
as
other
areas
of
Conservative
reform
in
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