Includes bibliographical references and index.

Front Matter -- Introduction -- The Hall-Jessop Debate -- Neo-Poulantzasian Political Analysis -- Method of Presentation -- Pre-History: Britain in Crisis (–1977) -- Emergence: A New Agenda for the Conservative Party (1977–9) -- Material Gains: Conducting Class Politics by Stealth (1979–84) -- Instability and Confrontation (1984–8) -- Stabilisation: Entrenching the Advance (1988–92) -- Erosion: Losing Control (1992–9) -- The Consequences of Thatcherism -- New Labour and the Thatcherite Legacy -- Conclusion -- References -- Index.

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In The Thatcherite Offensive , Alexander Gallas provides a class-centred political analysis of Thatcherism. Drawing upon Greek state theorist Nicos Poulantzas, he challenges both mainstream and critical accounts of British politics in the 1980s and 90s. He shows that Thatcherism’s sucess and novelty, indeed its unity as a political project, lay in the fact that the Thatcher governments profoundly shifted class relations in Britain in favour of capital and restructured the institutions underpinning class domination. According to Gallas, it was an integral part of the Thatcherite project to directly intervene in labour relations, to deprive workers of their ability to forge coalitions, and to smash militant trade unionism.