This week I pulled from Chris Edwards' submission to the Cato Journal entitled Margaret Thatcher's Privatization Legacy. Within his second section, Edwards discusses the privatization process Thatcher implemented in the rail and water industries. Edwards credits these two industries as the largest controversies. Edwards explains how prior to Thatcher's administration, public transportation experienced a steady decline. During her administration, it continued to drop at a concerning rate. In 1994, Thatcher's administration decided to break up the government corporation and privatize certain pieces. Many of these pieces created large concerns for the public. The waterlines failed to reach certain sectors of England, meanwhile train risks grew incredibly after numerous reports of crashes spread. Before long, the formerly barely used public transportation system turned into an even less used private transportation system. Though many of these issues stalwarted growth for the private industry as a whole, it created a platform for private growth on the broader scope, which Edwards explains most experts credit to Thatcher's conservative vision. By 2014, the private industry grew double fold.
This also distinctively reminds me of last week's readings when Joel Migdal explained the process by which leaders raise an army. Though Thatcher's army wasn't necessarily a brutal one, she was determined in executing a conservative plan. She wanted to shift England towards a conservative conscious, while her opposition like Kinnock wanted to progress a stronger central government and publicly owned markets. Instead Thatcher implemented a policy that would benefit the economy as a whole. She recognized that public transportation and water were dying public industries needing to be energized. She did this through privatizing the industry and handing the government's power to the corporations.
By handing the power over to the people, Thatcher also engaged in another component of Migdal's argument; the strongest states rises from unrest. Thatcher's administration was harshly criticized for her decision to shift to the private sector; moreover, English citizens clearly didn't trust Thatcher's decision as well. Nevertheless, Thatcher's administration continued to break up the public sector. When viewing the decision as a whole, Thatcher managed to create a strong state within England through privatizing the industry and creating a path for these industries to develop economic growth for England as a whole. In this manner, Thatcher recruited her subjects to follow her lead into economic greatness which reflects the well-being of the state.
