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The reelection of Mrs Thatcher's Conservative Government to a third term of office in June 1987 was remarkable and deserves repeated and in depth analysis. The performance of the government, and <i>Thatcherism</i> need to be seen in terms of their success in reversing Britain's relative economic decline. How have its policies sought to break the pattern of decline? Has it adopted a consistent, and distinctive approach? Is the party's unprecedented electoral success a product of its economic policies? What does the future hold? The following elements are crucial. The government has made its most important efforts in two main areas- towards the unions, and towards the fostering of the service sector of the economy. These policies, described in detail, have been important politically, and electorally (two terms which have different meanings and ramifications for the government). They are not, however, policies which are likely to provide the third Thatcher administration with automatic support in years to come. Recent accounts of the third victory have failed to recognize the precariousness of the Conservative government's position, in part exacerbated by the nature of the interests fostered the financial sector may prove to be an electoral liability, instead of an asset as before. The paper suggests that the ability of the government to win successive elections is evidence of the salience of factors which are often overlooked in political economy papers. The importance of expectations particularly in election year, of macro-economic variables controlled, to some extent, by the government, such as tax rates, and the relative unimportance of factors such as unemployment and inflation are also revealed by the Thatcher record. / Master of Arts

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This thesis examines the general economic and intellectual climate of the mid-Tudor Commonwealth as a background for a specific study of the financial reforms instituted by Edward VI's government while the Duke of Northumberland controlled the Privy Council. The philosophy behind these measures parallels the principles expressed in A Discourse of the Commonweal of this Realm of England, a treatise written in 1549 by Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary to King Edward. In 1551-1552 the implementation of financial reform fell to Sir William Cecil, also King's Secretary and Northumberland's key administrator on the Council. In establishing the link between Smith's ideas and Cecil's policy, this thesis draws upon letters, Council records and Smith's written works to reveal the process by which thoughts became deeds in the mid-Tudor Commonwealth.

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This dissertation attempts to determine what Britain expected from participation in the Supreme Economic Council (SEC) of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and to what extent its expectations were realized. An investigation of available sources reveals that access to European markets and raw materials and a balance of power to prevent French, German, or Russian hegemony in Europe were British foreign policy goals that SEC delegates sought to advance. Primary sources for this study include unpublished British Foreign Office and Cabinet records, published British, United States, and German government documents, unpublished personal papers of people directing SEC efforts, such as David Lloyd George, Austen Chamberlain, Cecil Harmsworth, Harry Osborne Mance, and John Maynard Keynes, and published memoirs and accounts of persons who were directly or indirectly involved with the SEC. Secondary accounts include biographies and histories or studies of the Peace Conference and of countries affected by its work. Primarily concerned with the first half of 1919, this dissertation focuses on British participation in Inter-allied war-time economic efforts, in post-war Rhineland control, in the creation of the SEC, and in the SEC endeavors of revictualling Germany, providing food and medical relief for eastern Europe, and reconstructing European communications. It concludes with Britain's role in the attempt to convert the SEC into an International Economic Council in the last half of 1919 and with the transfer of SEC duties to the Reparations Commission and to the League of Nations. Through participation in the SEC, Britain led in negotiating the Brussels Agreement and in establishing the Rhineland Commission and the German Economic Commission, reversing French attempts to control the Rhenish economy, preventing French hegemony in Europe, and gaining access to German markets for British goods. Although it failed to achieve its goals of strong eastern European states and access to markets and raw materials there, Britain led in restoration of communications and participated in the relief effort which saved the new states from anarchy in 1919.