Thatcher’s Children, Blair’s Babies, Political Socialization and Trickle-down Value Change: An Age, Period and Cohort Analysis

Maria Teresa Grasso , Stephen Farrall (1) , Colin Hay (2) , Emily Gray (1) , Will Jennings (3)

1 The University of Sheffield [Sheffield, U.K.]
2 CEE - Centre d'études européennes et de politique comparée (Sciences Po, CNRS)
3 University of Southampton

To what extent are new generations ‘Thatcherite’? Using British Social Attitudes data for 1985–2012 and applying age-period-cohort analysis and generalized additive models, this article investigates whether Thatcher’s Children hold more right-authoritarian political values compared to other political generations. The study further examines the extent to which the generation that came of age under New Labour – Blair’s Babies – shares these values. The findings for generation effects indicate that the later political generation is even more right-authoritarian, including with respect to attitudes to redistribution, welfare and crime. This view is supported by evidence of cohort effects. These results show that the legacy of Thatcherism for left-right and libertarian-authoritarian values is its long-term shaping of public opinion through political socialization.

Keywords: New Right; Political socialization; Political generations; Social attitudes

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Political science

Maria Teresa Grasso, Stephen Farrall, Colin Hay, Emily Gray, Will Jennings. Thatcher’s Children, Blair’s Babies, Political Socialization and Trickle-down Value Change: An Age, Period and Cohort Analysis. British Journal of Political Science, 2019, 49 (1), pp.17 - 36. ⟨10.1017/S0007123416000375⟩. ⟨hal-02184196v2⟩