After The War The British Consensus Analysis (1945-1979)

There is an important feature of British politics after World War II, which is called "the consensus politics". During the 30 years from the Attlee government to the mid-1970's, the governments, no matter led by Labour Party or Conservative Party, would come to a consensus in the series of domestic and foreign policies. The scholars of Britain and China have made some research in the Consensus Politics which shows that there are two periods after the World War II which show the feature of Consensus Politics. The Consensus Politics in the first period from the end of World War II to 1979, before the Thatcher's Government, is regarded as the "social-democratic consensus". In this period, it is called "Butskellism" that the policies made by Conservative Party were gradually tilted the ones made by Labour Party. The consensus politics in the second period from the Tony Blair's government in 1998, is called "neo-liberal consensus". In this period, the policies inherited some of the Thatcher's policies, which are called "the third way". The third way is used by Labour Party to distinguish the neo-liberalism form the old Social democracy. Meanwhile, some policies of "the third way" are called "Blecherism".This article mainly deals with political consensus in the first period (1945—1979). The article is divided into four chapters. The first chapter mainly includes the concept, status and significance of the consensus politics in British. It mainly analyzes the concept of political consensus, and the difference between consensus politics, political consensus and policy consensus. The second chapter focuses on the content of consensus politics after the post-war in Britain. It is illustrated the ideological consensus, political consensus and policy consensus. Nowadays, academic focuses on the policy consensus, although it involved the ideological consensus and political consensus. The third chapter analyzes the causes of the consensus politics from the historical background, economic causes, political systems and class factors. The fourth chapter introduces the bankruptcy of the first consensus politics after post-war in British and its evaluation. It is not only to evaluate itself, but also to evaluation from the view of the world socialist movement.The first consensus politics played a very important role in the British history and became a vital feature of the British post-war politics. The research on the consensus politics is very important not only for the study of the British history, but also for the research on the world socialist movement.