| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this master’s thesis is to compare how the British Conservative Party and Høyre in Norway tried to strengthen the position of the individual and the family through their use of political rhetoric and legislation in areas of economic and social policy during the period 1979-1990. The thesis attempts to provide new and wider knowledge about similarities and differences between two political parties’ policies and contextual circumstances. The focus is concentrated on three specific areas of policy, namely economic and taxation policy, housing policy, and social security policy and the welfare state. The findings in this thesis emphasise how two different parties, with several common ideological traits, designed and implemented their ideas and policies in order to react to the economic, social, and political issues of the 1970s and 1980s. The comparison of the two parties indicates a difference in their perception of which environment they believed individuals and families would be able to thrive in most. The Conservative Party, with their aim to re-establish the existing order and delegitimise Socialism, aimed to achieve a society in which individuals had an increased responsibility for their own situation. Høyre wanted to find more efficient ways to maintain the existing order, which was largely built on social-democratic principles and a strong welfare state, so that individuals and families could prosper within a more secure environment, and a slightly different type of freedom could ultimately prevail. | |
