In the postwar era, there has been a change in the nature of the British Conservative Party caused by the adoption of classical liberal ideas antithetical to its principles. This trend rapidly accelerated during the leadership of the Party by Margaret Thatcher who appeared oblivious to the fundamental incompatibility of liberalism and conservatism. She attempted to weld them together in her economic and social policies creating strong internal tensions within what was dubbed "Thatcherism". This clash became more pronounced as her reign as British Prime Minister continued and was part of the reason for her eventual downfall at the hands of her own party. To illustrate the conversion of the Conservative Party to a more liberal standpoint we will consider two modern day political thinkers and the popularity of their positions. This approach is taken because their philosphies parallel the thinking of the postwar Conservative Party before Thatcher and under Thatcher's leadership. Michael Oakeshott, who fits into the conservative tradition and Friedrich Hayek, who embodies liberalism. Oakeshott's philosophy is in sharp contrast at important points to the ideas of Hayek, a self-confessed and proud liberal, whose ideas nevertheless found favour within the Conservative Party while many integral parts of conservatism, of which Oakeshott is a representative, were pushed aside. The stridency and harshness with which Thatcher preached the doctrine of economic liberalism and ideology and also tried to retain certain conservative ideals such as, authority, nationalism and militarism constituted a serious and damaging tension within her programme as well as demonstrating the depth of the change that had occurred in the Conservative Party. This thesis seeks to point out these changes and illustrate the adverse effects caused by attempting to turn the Conservative Party into a promoter of classical liberal ideology and thereby partially explain the increasing shakiness of Thatcherism in the 1980's. Even though its leader never lost faith in its convictions or her determination to translate them into concrete policies . / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

This essay is an analytical study that examines the ideological features of the New Right, that has governed Britain and the United States after the 2008 financial crisis, regarding globalization. The purpose of the essay is to identify the most prominent similarities and differences in the positions of the New Right on globalization in both countries after 2008. The essay shows that the New Right differs, in Britain and the United States, in its position on globalization. In Britain, successive Conservative governments support globalization with its economic, political, cultural and ecological dimensions, but with conditions. On the other hand, Trump, the only Republican president in the United States after 2008, does not support globalization in any of its dimensions. However, there are similarities between the two doctrines on issues related to the assertion of sovereignty and national identity.

“The Conservative Party and Perceptions of the British Middle Classes, 1951 – 1974,” explores conceptions of middle-class voters at various levels of the party organization after the Second World War. Since Benjamin Disraeli, Conservatives have endeavoured to represent national rather than sectional interests and appeal widely to a growing electorate. Yet, the middle classes and their interests have also enjoyed a special position in the Conservative political imagination often because the group insists they receive special consideration. It proved especially difficult to juggle these priorities after 1951 when Conservatives encountered two colliding challenges: the middle classes growing at a rapid rate, failing to form a unified outlook or identity, and the limited appeal of consumer rhetoric and interests owing to the uneven experience of affluence and prosperity. Conservative ideas and policies failed to acknowledge and resonate with the changing nature of their core supporters and antiquated local party organization reinforced feelings of alienation from and mistrust of new members of the middle classes as well as affluent workers. This research shows that there was no clear-cut path between postwar Conservatism to Margaret Thatcher’s brand of Conservatism in which the individual, self-sufficient and acquisitive middle-class consumer became the champion. Moreover, the Conservative Party revealed, in these discussions, that it was much less ideologically certain than narratives have allowed previously. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This master's thesis deals with the British political Conservative discourse on Global Britain in the years 2016-2020 and the United Kingdom's place in the post-Brexit world. After the unexpected results of the EU referendum, the British government introduced the concept of Global Britain as their new foreign policy orientation. This paper assumes that the idea of the UK opened to the whole world and embracing old friends and new allies alike is built upon the imperial nostalgia and the idealisation of their past. It focuses on the various ways in which nostalgia manifests itself in the Conservative discourse of 2016-2020, specifically in the public speeches of its key representatives and election programs. In the theoretical part, this paper explores the academic debate on Global Britain and the role of history in the post-Brexit world. It uses the memory studies and operationalisation of the concept of nostalgia as a framework for the source analysis. The empirical chapter presents the research results in two ways - based on the thematic categories and individual speakers. The former follows the various ways in which the nostalgic manifestations are used to create a vision of a post-Brexit global Britain, while the latter focuses on the individual approaches in the efforts to communicate that image.