ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ideas of the most influential academics, particularly Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. It outlines their reasons for proposing less state intervention and their views on the acceptable residual functions of the state. The chapter discusses the issue of how the ideas have been absorbed into the political arena, concentrating on the work of Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher who laid the ideological foundations for the 1979 election campaign and the subsequent 'rule' of Thatcherism. The reorientation of the state is based on the view that a market system of decision-making is always preferable to any political or bureaucratic process. The state in the post-war period through its massive intervention has taken away from the individual so many decisions and choices that morality has suffered. The mediating function of government is developed by Friedman in a discussion of property rights, which is of particular interest given the interventionist position of planning in relation to these rights.
