Thatcherism Globally
How Thatcher's ideas spread beyond Britain — from Rogernomics to shock therapy — and why the results varied so dramatically.
The Thatcher-Reagan Model Goes Global
Thatcherism did not stay in Britain. Alongside Reaganomics in the United States, it formed the core of what became known as the 'Washington Consensus' — a set of economic policy prescriptions that dominated global economic thinking from the mid-1980s through the early 2000s. The formula was remarkably consistent: privatize state-owned enterprises, deregulate markets, reduce government spending, lower taxes, liberalize trade, and welcome foreign investment.
The term 'Washington Consensus' was coined by economist John Williamson in 1989, but the ideas had been spreading since Thatcher's first term. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank made these policies conditions for loans to developing countries. Countries facing economic crises had little choice but to accept: structural adjustment programs required privatization, deregulation, and austerity as the price of financial assistance.
For Thatcher and her allies, this was vindication. The ideas that had been considered radical in 1979 were now the global orthodoxy. Free markets, private enterprise, and limited government were being adopted on every continent.
