The Political Socialisation of Thatcher’s Children: Identifying the Long Reach of Thatcherite Social and Economic Values and Perceptions of Crime

Abstract

This chapter summarises what is known about how political ideologies can shape and cast an enduring influence over a generation of citizens. It describes how these processes can be researched statistically, focusing on the case of Thatcherism. Using an ‘age period and cohort’ approach, the chapter tests the extent to which ‘Thatcherism’ permeated public attitudes and perceptions of crime in those who grew-up during the 1980s and 1990s. The authors test if the Conservative administrations between 1979 and 1997 (including both the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major) marked a departure from the past and ushered in a period of social change (Mannheim, Karl, The Problem of Generations. In Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge, Karl Mannheim, edited and translated by Paul Kecskemeti, London, Routledge, 1928). Underlining these dynamics, the chapter demonstrates how political socialisation is a ‘slow-moving’ (Pierson, Paul, Politics in Time, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2004) process, the consequences of which may not become fully realised for several decades.