Capitalism in Contention
Business Leaders and Political Economy in Modern Britain

Capitalism in Contention examines the ideas of British business leaders on political, economic and ethical issues since 1960.

Jonathan Boswell (Author), James Peters (Author)

9780521582254, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 November 1997

266 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.56 kg

'… a very detailed research study undertaken in scholarly depth … This book gives much food for thought. it is a highly original analysis of a much-overworked theme. Because of its new and detailed historical research content, and because of its overarching thrust of assessment, it has become a highly valued source for the analysis of business interests in the post-war period.' Review of Social Economy

Capitalism in Contention examines the ideas of British business leaders on political, economic and social issues since 1960. Using unexplored records, interviews and both narrative and conceptual approaches, it sheds light on the Wilson, Heath and Thatcher periods from business points of view, on the 'mixed economy' and the 'New Right', the peak business bodies (CBI, BIM, IOD etc), and business-government relationships. Although the business ideas were often muffled or secreted, they made distinctive contributions to both public policy and thinking about 'capitalism'. The authors highlight three main ideological tendencies of elite business opinion, 'revisionism', 'liberationism' and reconstructionism'. These saw business respectively as adaptive partner in a pluralist system, pivot and liberator, and focus of social reconstruction, and their struggle for influence forms a central theme. This 1997 book will be of absorbing interest to students of politics, modern history and business, and to policy makers as well as concerned citizens.

1. Business social ideas in the making
2. An adapted, moderated capitalism: the anatomy of revisionism
3. Cooperation or conflict? Business and the Labour government, 1964–70
4. Liberationist capitalism in the wilderness, 1960–75
5. The peaks and precipices of revisionism, 1969–74
6. Sytemic change in capitalism? The reconstructionists
7. Turmoil, realignment and recovery: British business 1974–9
8. Business and early Thatcherism
9. New orthodoxy? Muffled dissent?
10. The significance of business ideology.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP]