Tax and Spend: Towards a Smaller State?

Adrian Williamson
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Adrian Williamson: Trinity Hall

Chapter 3 in Conservative Economic Policymaking and the Birth of Thatcherism, 1964–1979, 2015, pp 58-88 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In November 1978, Arthur Cockfield addressed the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).1 As will appear, Cockfield and the IFS had played, and would continue to play, important parts in debates over taxation and spending. Cockfield claimed to detect a turning point on spending and associated revenue policies, in Britain and elsewhere: ‘public resentment will ultimately compel a reduction in the role of the state … it may well be that the collectivist tide has already reached its high water mark’.2 Much of the literature reflects this apparent Conservative intellectual and rhetorical self-confidence. Some writers have discerned Conservative enthusiasm for radical Republican policies.3 Thus, Gamble suggests that, after 1974, the Conservatives embraced ‘the revival of a liberal economy’.4 In his view, they sought large reductions in welfare spending to secure substantial cuts in taxation.5

Keywords: Public Spending; Capital Spending; Indirect Taxis; Direct Taxation; Council House (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:psitcp:978-1-137-46026-4_3

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137460264_3

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