Abstract
Since 1979 the so-called 'Thatcher experiment' or the 'Thatcherism' was at the centre of many debates, partly because Mrs Thatcher's government has broken with many features of the postwar consensus and partly because her government's record is contested (Kavanagh, 1987, p1). But above all, the term 'Thatcherism' need to be define. There are three main visions of Thatcherism. Generally, for the authors, this is a purely political phenomenon, characterized by Mrs Thatcher's personality and style of leadership and her way to govern (King 1985; Minogue and Biddiss 1987; Jenkins 1987), a breakdown with the postwar policy consensus (Kavanagh, 1990; Kavanagh and Morris 1994) and traditional forms of Conservative Party's way of governing (Bulpitt, 1986). Others emphasize the ideological dimension of Thatcherism (Hall, S. 1979; Hay 1996). To them, the Thatcher project represented an alternative to social democracy, set up around a New Right discourse. Finally, for some writers, Thatcherism is, in economic terms, a national response to international crises (Jessop, 1988; Taylor, 1992; Overbeek, 1990). Actually, I will consider 'Thatcherism' as the style of leadership of Mrs Thatcher, her ideology and her politics.
