British Revenue Policy Of The Government Of Macmillan (1961-1963)

Every government in Britain implemented incomes policy from the year 1961 to 1979. Incomespolicy was not only restraint on wages, but also on all kinds of incomes, so it has a character ofequilibrium. The purpose of incomes policy was to promote the development of British economy in caseof the maintenance of full employment. Other postwar goverments in Britain had implemented restrainton wages before 1961, but that was not the real incomes policy. It was Macmillan governmentintroduced incomes policy in 1961. From a macro-perspective, this article mainly does a history andempirical research on incomes policy of Macmillan government with a purpose of finding its origin,policy practice, and give a evalustion and positioning on the policy. The main composition of the articleincluding introduction part and three chapters.The introduction part makes a definition of the concept of incomes policy, and then focuses on asurvey of the recent development in the studies of incomes policy. Incomes policy was the mandatory ornon-mandatory wage restraint policy took by the British government to curb inflation. As a notablecharacter of post-war political consensus, incomes policy has attracted widespread attention on theforeign academia. They have studyed on incomes policy from different angles. Compared to the abroad,although some books and articles referred to the problem, the domestic research are often too simple,lacking in-depth discussion.Chapter One: from wages policy to incomes policy —the origin of incomes policy in Macmillangovernment. This chapter introduces wage restraint policy of British government before 1961, focusingon the differences between wage restraint and incomes policy. After the introduction of the incomespolicy, Macmillan interim government was different from the previous government, the reason is mainlybecause the previous government imposed wage limit is not official policy in the face of wage and pricespiral hikes, relying on the friendly relations between the government and trade unions. And theintroduction of incomes policy by Macmillan government, it was government issued the wage restraintpolicy and involving the government and the union together. The article points out that the deteriorationof the economic situation and the commitment to full employment made the Macmillan governmentchose incomes policy. The previous wage restraint policy success or not largely depends on the attitudeof trade union, which also prompted Macmillan government to consider the introduction of thelong-term incomes policy. The expansion of post-war state intervention, the building of the welfare stateand the development of state-owned assets also enabled long-term government intervention in industrialrelations possible.Chapter Two: the formulation and practice of incomes policy in Macmillan Government. Thespecific measures of incomes policy in Macmillan Government included the introduction of the wagefreeze, the establishment of the "guiding light" and the principles of arbitration, the establishment of theNational Incomes Commission and the National Economic Development Commission. This section isthe focus of this paper.Chapter Three: the assessment and positioning of incomes policy in Macmillan government. Thischapter has made an overall estimation and positioning about the Macmillan government's incomepolicy. To some extent, the policy curbed inflation, and achieved certain policy effects, butfundamentally this policy is a failure.The implementation of the policy also brought a set of questions,such as the losing of the national authority, over-expanding of the trade union authority and morecomplication of the industrial relation. Meanwhile, the implementation of the income policy urgesthe state's intervention to strengthen futhurly, which enters the hand-on stage, symbolizing the Britishpostwar consensus politics developing into a new stage.This paper is talking about the incomes policy of Macmillan Government, but the policy was notonly adopted by the British Government. After World War II, developed capitalist countries includingFrance also adopted incomes policy, to different extent although. And among them the Britain was themost typical representative. Incomes policy was not only an economic policy which was meant torestrict workers' pay increase. It also brought far-reaching influence upon the countries' politics,economics and society. Therefore, to examine incomes policy of Macmillan Government is of greatimportance in understanding the new trends of the development of the contemporary Western capitalistcountries.