on direct controls, coercive economic planning and widespread nationaliza-
tion. At the same time the right wing of theConservative Partywas
dismayed that there was little de-nationalization and no return to the gold
standard, and that the government should pursue anything but a totally
laissez-faireeconomic policy. Butskellism can fairly be said to have lasted
until the Conservative Party’s conversion tomonetarismin the late 1970s. By
the time of the 1992 general election both parties had resumed a move towards
a similar form of convergence, in fact to the right of Butskellism. This trend
accelerated in the late 1990s when the Labour Party, under the leadership of
Tony Blair, re-branded itself asNew Labourand abandoned its historic
commitment to nationalization. In fact, Butskellism was an early public
awareness of the well-tested theory of party competition leading to ideological
convergence. The classic theory predicting this, AnthonyDowns’An Eco-
nomic Theory of Democracy, was not published until some years after Butskellism
was first noted.
Butskellism