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In History, Politics & Society
What is politics of consensus?
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Phrase used to describe the practice of government in Britain between 1945 and 1979. The phenomenon was observed by political scientists and media commentators; Br…itain's two major political parties, the Conservative Party and Labour Party, were in agreement, or consensus, over certain basic government policies in the decades after World War II. The introduction of fundamental changes in government responsibility, such as the welfare state, the national health service (NHS), and widespread nationalization of industry, were effectively unchallenged by either party..
The consensus lasted throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, but started to break down in the 1970s. Following the oil price rises of the early 1970s, the new economic experience of 'stagflation', where high inflation was combined with high unemployment, caused many in the Conservative Party to challenge the accepted orthodoxy of Keynesian economics - that a fall in national income and rising unemployment should be countered by increased government expenditure to stimulate the economy. There was increasing divergence of economic opinion between the two parties, ending the consensus of the previous decades. By the time of the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 on a strongly free-market monetarist platform (aiming to curb inflation by controlling the UK's money supply, cut government spending, and privatize industry; see monetarism), consensus had become an unpopular word in many parts of the political establishment..
The politics of consensus could also refer to the same time period (after WWII) on the United States political scene. President Eisenhower was able to gain a large political consensus with his massive popularity and high approval rating. Eisenhower was able to use the communist threat during the Cold War to gain a political consensus about the government's role in fighting communism. Eisenhower was avid on keeping the status quo in Washington and didn't change a lot in Post-WWII America because the economy was so good..
Unfortunately the U.S. politics of consesus didn't last as long as Great Britain's due to two dividing issues in the 1960's the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. (MORE)