L'économie de la Grande-Bretagne et la politique de Mme Thatcher

Abstract

United Kingdom's Economy and Mrs. Thatcher's Policy, by Peter M. Oppenheimer For over twenty-five years, the United Kingdom has been struggling with economic difficulties and with a lower growth than its partners. As a result the country is now the poorest among the North Western European countries (with the exception of Ireland). To be sure, the United Kingdom is not alone to be ailing and most of the industrialised countries suffer from the conjunction of inflation and unemployment, as well as from the slowing down of gains of productivity. But because the crisis they have to face is deeper and enduring, British leaders are often inclined to choose radical solutions. Previous labour governments have been indulging in an excess of Keynesianism; today, in order to cure the "British disease", Mrs. Thatcher relies on the virtues of monetarism, on the reduction of the state's role and on supply-side economics. But this drastic therapy which was started in May of 1979 has obviously worsened recession without yielding any tangible results in the of inflation, at least until the beginning of 1981. This failure is partly due to the contradictory aspects of the policy effectively implemented by Mrs. Thatcher. If the economic indicators (particularly inflation) now seem to show signs of improvement, the state of the British economy remains nevertheless critical while the use made of the profits drawn from oil production in the North Sea remains controversial.