ABSTRACT
In the 1980s, Conservative governments drew selectively on the critiques of health care discussed in the previous chapter to restructure welfare institutions. Although ideas from the New Right which emphasised monetarist economics, reductions in public spending and personal responsibility were predominant, the monopoly power of large public bureaucracies and the power exercised by welfare professionals within them were also a target of Thatcherism. The latter were seen as forces which inhibited change. This chapter examines the principles expounded by Conservative politicians and the policies adopted in the lead up to the 1990 reforms. The NHS was the last welfare institution to be restructured. This was because of its popularity, the power of interest groups within it and also uncertainty about how to proceed.
