ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ideological attacks on the state, a movement that came into its own during the Reagan-Thatcher era of the 1980s. The chapter highlights the rise of the administrative welfare state emerging out of the Great Depression and World War II. The chapter then explores how during the economically troubled 1970s new ideas, such as those promoted by Milton Freidman, gained wider acceptance, eventually culminating in the election of conservative Ronald Reagan in 1980, as well as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Reagan unabashedly attacked the New Deal and big government while celebrating the power free enterprise. The decade of the 1990s was marked by Democratic President Bill Clinton proclaiming that “the era of big government is over.” The chapter then highlights how the Reagan revolution and its aftermath has led to a weakening of the countervailing power of the state. This, along with a move toward privatization of government services, has opened the door for corporate predation to feast on the public largesse. The chapter then examines the shifting tides of antitrust enforcement that occurred under the Reagan era in the context of the rise of big tech, along with consolidation across a range of industries.
