ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a framework against which to assess changes to the planning system during the 1980s and in particular, Simplified Planning Zones. It reviews the two main strands of Thatcherism, liberalism and authoritarianism. The chapter examines the relationship between the two and discusses works that have aimed to measure policy outcomes under Thatcherism. The discarding of consensus and the emphasis on conviction politics in Thatcherism rejects this approach and threatens the stability of society. In addition to a mutual dependence, liberalism and authoritarianism also have common features. D. Marsh and R. A. W. Rhodes point to two other influences on government policy. The first was the EC which increasingly influenced environmental, agriculture and economic policy areas and the second was the role of Parliamentary Committees which, as Wistow shows in the case of the Social Services Select Committee, directly changed policy.
