Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/71480 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2001
Series/Report no.: 
IFS Working Papers No. 01/04
Publisher: 
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London
Abstract: 
In 1974 Britain elected a Labour government pledged to expand public spending significantly. Labour followed its programme for two years, but after that began to cut both government spending and taxation, anticipating the post-1979 Conservative agenda. This paper examines the history of this government, using it as a test-case for various 'New Right' economic and political theories that suggest that government expansion eventually hits structural limits. Such theoretical accounts prove unsatisfactory. By contrast, several short-term factors seem to have played an important constraining role. But an examination of the political thinking within the 1970s Labour Party suggests that autonomous ideological changes were the most crucial determinant of the policy reversal.
Subjects: 
State
Labour
1970s
Social-democratic
JEL: 
H10
H11
H50
N44
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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