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The strong revival of conservatism in the 1980s, both as a governmental force and as a body of political thought, is frequently portrayed as a flowering of beliefs and attitudes attached to new theoretical frameworks, meriting the designation New Right or neo‐liberal conservatism, as distinct from plain neo‐conservatism. Those frameworks, it is often asserted, have substantially reformulated conservative doctrine and launched a cohesive set of positive ideas matching progressive ideologies in sophistication and breadth. The contemporary study of conservatism is thus confronted with two conundrums: is there now in evidence a new type of conservatism, breaking with its past incarnations and embarking on a programme of change so active that it may no longer be conservatism; and moreover, is there an unbridgeable rift between two concurrent conservative creeds, neo‐liberal and traditional? It is argued here that late twentieth‐century conservative thought occupies fundamentally the same semantic field as its predecessors, granted that the cultural constraints within which its network of concepts is decontested have been considerably transformed; consequently, conservatism appears to be attached to an innovatory range of substantive ideas and policies. The five sections of the chapter are: (a) Thatcherism as conservatism; (b) The subservience of economics; (c) ‘Who is the fiercest of them all?’; (d) Recent American conservatisms; and (e) The unity of Thatcherite ideology.

Most Conservatives tend to agree that the welfare state should provide a safety net for those at risk of destitution and that it should not be used as a vehicle for major egalitarian forms of redistribution. However, the party’s approach towards the welfare state has ebbed and flowed since 1940 with particular strands of Conservatism dominating at particular times. Between 1950 and 1964 the One Nation Conservative tradition held sway. In a brief interregnum under Edward Heath, a modern technocratic approach to the welfare state came to the fore to be succeeded by the emergence of neo-liberal Conservatism under the Thatcher and Major governments. At present, a progressive, neo-liberal Conservative approach is holding sway. While this represents continued support for neo-liberal economic policies it has been combined with a `tough’ but `fair’ approach to those experiencing poverty. It remains to be seen how long whether this current variation of Conservatism will hold sway.

Following a lengthy spell in opposition, the Conservatives returned to government in 2010. During their time in the political `wilderness’ the Conservatives, attempted to address their reputation as the `nasty’ party by adopting a compassionate Conservative narrative under William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard. It was only after David Cameron became party leader in 2005 that a more influential progressive neo-liberal Conservative doctrine emerged. Cameron developed a more inclusive approach to those following non-traditional lifestyles such and adopted a more enlightened approach to those experiencing poverty. Cameron’s championing of the `Big Society’ was also intended to demonstrate his preference for increased reliance on non-state solutions in field of social policy.