Thatcherism\u27s Triumph: How Margaret Thatcher’s Neoliberal Policies Brought Prosperity to Britain

By 1979, the British economy was in complete and utter disarray. Inflation was at record highs along with unemployment. The post-world war consensus was built off the idea of embedded liberalism, which stressed that the government must play a large and active role in regulating the markets and that it was in the government\u27s interest to keep unemployment at its natural low. Similar to the United States, since the Great Depression the welfare state in Great Britain had been expanding. The post-war consensus proclaimed and exhausted the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes who believed in embedded liberalism and the idea that to pull the nation out of economic hardship, the government must boost demand among the people. But with consistent poor economic performance for almost a decade, trade union strikes that crippled the nation, and the failures of previous administrations to address these issues the British people were ready to try out the new neoliberal economic policies of Margaret Thatcher. In 1979 the Conservative party won an over forty-seat majority in parliament and Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female Prime Minister. This paper will argue that Margaret Thatcher ushered in a new age in British politics, effectively breaking the post-war embedded liberal consensus and introducing a new age of neoliberalism to the United Kingdom. While Thatcher’s economic policies negatively affected certain sectors of the economy such as wealth inequality, the nation was better off economically after ten years of Thatcher\u27s neoliberalism than it was prior to her election as Prime Minister in 1979

A Historical and Philosophical Comparison: Joseph de Maistre & Edmund Burke

Most historians have focused on the British thinker and statesman Edmund Burke, when discussing the development of Conservatism. He is often considered the “Father of Conservatism” as his principal work Reflections on the Revolution in France inspired generations of conservative thinkers. However, another conservative thinker was writing during the same period as Burke and has been relatively lost to history. Joseph de Maistre, was developing conservative thought at the same time as Burke, but has received little to no credit for the influence he held. The aim of this paper is to show that Maistre was just as influential in the development of conservatism as Burke during the Revolutionary years in Europe. The paper will also demonstrate that Maistre was not an extremist as many historians have portrayed him to be

Preferred Fourth-Line Pharmacotherapy for Resistant Hypertension: Are We There Yet?

© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Resistant hypertension (RH) is defined as blood pressure (BP) that remains above target levels despite adherence to at least three different antihypertensive medications, typically including a diuretic. Epidemiological studies estimate that RH is increasing in prevalence, and is associated with detrimental health outcomes. The pathophysiology underlying RH is complex, involving multiple, overlapping contributors including activation of the renin-angiotensin aldosterone system and the sympathetic nervous system, volume overload, endothelial dysfunction, behavioural and lifestyle factors. Hypertension guidelines currently recommend specific pharmacotherapy for 1st, 2nd and 3rd-line treatment, however no specific fourth-line pharmacotherapy is provided for those with RH. Rather, five different antihypertensive drug classes are generally suggested as possible alternatives, including: mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, a1-adrenergic antagonists, a2-adrenergic agonists, ß-blockers, and peripheral vasodilators. Each of these drug classes vary in their efficacy, tolerability and safety profile. This review summarises the available data on each of these drug classes as a potential fourth-line drug and reveals a lack of robust clinical evidence for preferred use of most of these classes in the setting of RH. Moreover, there is a lack of direct comparative trials that could assist in identifying a preferred fourth-line pharmacologic approach and in providing evidence for hypertensive guidelines for adequate treatment of RH