The postwar 'golden age' of growth built up American and British welfare states. This settlement was challenged in the 1970s by coalitions of business, taxpayers, consumers, ideologists and social scientists. Emerging from a core of discontent, market liberalism retrieved the intellectual and political hegemony, and continues to advance globally. The focus of this project is on policy norms. The study considers the origins, attributes, and drivers of market liberalism, its successes, failures, and prospects. Explanations encompass culture, human capital, technological change, economic theory, economic shocks, social disruption, and cognitive biases, in explaining the New Right, the Washington Consensus, de-regulation, privatisation, and globalisation.

Professor Avner Offer is undertaking the above project during his Major Research Fellowship awarded by the Leverhulme Trust.