Revisiting the concept of citizenship in Margaret Thatcher’s government: the individual, the state, and civil society

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article aims to re-evaluate Margaret Thatcher’s concept of citizenship and analyse its evolution during her government (1979–1990). It argues that her ideas concerning individuals and their relationship with the state and civil society were a crucial element of her belief system since at least the 1970s. Despite their importance, however, most analyses of Thatcherism have relegated these ideas to a marginal place. A rigorous analysis of speeches, interviews, memoirs and documents shows that Thatcher had reconceptualized the idea of citizenship long before her home secretary Douglas Hurd attempted to rationalize and re-package her ideas for public consumption. However, by the end of the 1980s, when moderate Conservatives such as Hurd turned their attention to this question, it was widely perceived that the Conservative Party required a more humane and coherent concept of citizenship. The article concludes that Thatcher’s ideas about the relationship between individuals, the state and community had a lasting influence on the Conservative and New Labour parties’ concept of citizenship.