The Effects of Thatcherism on British Society

This thesis seeks to explore the effects of Thatcherism on British society and institutions. The chapters will cover the most crucial issues in education, family, health care, housing and unemployment. The transformation in these areas could not take place until socialism’s traditional elements and relationships remained in effect, thus it is also important to see how British society and public opinion gradually shifted to the political right. Thatcherism took advantage of the disillusionment of the population but its popularity can also be seen as the lack of an alternative. In the following chapters the impact of Thatcherism’s ideology on these social areas will be in focus. To understand the phenomena and how the specific areas are affected by it, a general background on Thatcherism will be provided which points out the reasons why the ‘move to the right’ took place and on what grounds the Conservatives attacked the previous policies of the left and how they imagined the restructuring of the welfare state.egyetemiangol nyelv és irodalo