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 social issues since 1960. Using unexplored records, interviews and both narrative and conceptual approaches, it sheds new 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 book will be of absorbing interest to students of politics, modern history and business, and to policy makers as well as concerned citizens.