Thatcherism, Liberalism, and Tory Collectivism
| Author | Robert F Leach |
| Date | 01 February 1983 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9256.1983.tb00149.x |
| Published date | 01 February 1983 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
From Brezhnev
to
Andpopou: Orderly Succession
or
Crisis?
9
between 1940 and 1945, Shevardnadze (1948) and Gorbachev (1952) joined
in
the
period from the
end
of
the
war
up
to Stalin's death
in
1953.
recruit to the top leadership group,
is
the only one to have joined the party
in
the post-Stalin period
(in
1956).
Of the
12
full members of the Politburo 3 are secretaries while Pel'she heads the
Committee
of
Party Control,
a
central body. Grishin is in charge of the Moscow
party gorkom, and three major regional party organisations are represented: i.e.
there are
8
party functionaries
in
all.
The
remaining four members occupy
posi-
tions
in
the government.
A
similar pattern prevails amongst
the
candidate members.
Ryzhkov, the newest
Referenees
Frank,
P.
(1980), 'Leadership in Soviet-Type Political Systems', Government
and
Opposition,
Vol.
15,
no.
1,
pp.
92-100.
There is only one book-length study of leadership
in
the Soviet Union:
Rush,
M.
(1974), How Communist States Change Their Rulers (Ithaca and London: Cornell
University Press).
Other works which
touch
upon this question inter alia and which are excellent treat-
ments of their subjects are:
Brown,
A.
(1980), 'The Power
of
the
General Secretary of the
CPSU'
in
Rigby,
T.H.,
Brown,
A,,
and Reddaway,
P.,
A~thority, Power and Policy in the
USSR
(London:
Macmillan).
Bialer,
S.
(1980)
,
Stalin's Successors. Leadership, Stability,
and
Change in the
Soviet
Union
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Breslauer,
G.W.
(1982),
Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders: Building Authority in
Soviet Politics (London: George Allen
&
Unwin).
-0-000-0-
THATCHERISM,
LIEERALISM,
AND
TOR!' COLLECTIVISM
ROBERT
F
LEACH
In
a
recent newspaper interview Milton Friedman claimed, 'Margaret Thatcher
is
not
in terms of beliefs a Tory. (Observer,
26/9/82)
Conservatism marks a
sharp
break
from
the
Tory tradition, and has more
in
common
with
a nineteenth century Liberalism, that
is
historically the antithesis of Toryism.
The main elements
of
Liberalism and Toryism are
too
well known to require restating.
Most relevant here
is
that Tory
thinking
was less hostile to state power
than
Liberalism.
R.A.
Butler once asserted, 'A good Tory
has
never been in history afraid
of the use of the state.' (Commons debate 10/3/1947) 'Paternalism' is
a
term fre-
quently linked
with
Toryism, and some
writers
have talked
of
'Tory collectivism'
(Beer, 1969, Greenleaf 1973) while one recent
judgement
concluded, 'The mainstream
of ~onservatism has always been collectivist and paternalist
in
basis.' (Bennett,
1977). It
is
from
this
Tory collectivism that
Mrs.
Thatcher
is
alleged to have departed
It
will be argued here that while her leadership
has
involved a shift
in
emphasis
in the Conservative party, both her Liberalism
and
the collectivist tradition she
is supposed to have abandoned are exaggerated.
She is
a
nineteenth century Liberal.'
It
has
become almost an accepted
truth
that
Mrs.
Thatcher's brand
of
Mrs-
l'htcher's
Liberalism
In a series of speeches made before she became Prime Minister,
Mrs.
Thatcher set
outher views in forthright terms.
vities. She argued that Government
must
limit its acti-
The state had attempted to
do
too much and
had
intervened in areas where it
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