ABSTRACT
The shift from Keynsianism to monetarism, which had begun in the 1970s under both Conservative and Labour governments, in the 1980s accompanied a broader development of free market, small government policies commonly characterised as neoliberal. This chapter explores the development and general influence of neoliberalism and market-based reforms, in particular in relation to the emergence of a new form of political discourse promoting entrepreneurship and an ‘enterprise culture’. In this chapter, we focus on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme and new initiatives aimed at supporting finance for small firms, which focused on support being delivered in relation to the investor rather than the business owner.
