ONLY a handful of peacetime politicians can claim to have changed the world. Margaret Thatcher was one. She transformed not just her own Conservative Party, but the whole of British politics. Her enthusiasm for privatisation launched a global revolution and her willingness to stand up to tyranny helped to bring an end to the Soviet Union. Winston Churchill won a war, but he never created an “-ism”.
在和平时期，可称之为改变了世界的政治家屈指可数。玛格丽特·撒切尔就是这样一位政治家。她不仅改变了自身所在的保守党，而且改变了整个英国政治。她对私有化的激情引发了一场全球性的革命，她对抗暴政的意愿促使苏联走向灭亡。温斯顿·邱吉尔赢得了一场战争，但他从未创造一种“主义”。
The essence of Thatcherism was to oppose the status quo and bet on freedom—odd, since as a prim, upwardly mobile striver, she was in some ways the embodiment of conservatism. She thought nations could become great only if individuals were set free. Unlike Churchill's famous pudding, her struggles had a theme: the right of individuals to run their own lives, as free as possible from micromanagement by the state.
撒切尔主义的核心是反对现状，力争自由——这看上去难以理解。因为作为一个循规蹈矩，并且不停向上的奋斗者，从某种程度上来说，她是保守主义的化身。她认为，只有个人获得解放，国家才能变得强大。同众人皆知的“邱吉尔的布丁”所不同的是，她的奋斗有这样一个主题：尽可能地让掌握自身命运的个人权利远离国家的微观管理。
In her early years in politics, economic liberalism was in retreat, the Soviet Union was extending its empire, and Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek were dismissed as academic eccentrics. In Britain the government hobnobbed with trade unions (“beer and sandwiches in Number 10”), handed out subsidies to failing nationalised industries and primed the pump through Keynesian demand management. To begin with the ambitious young politician went along with this consensus (see article). But the widespread notion that politics should be “the management of decline” made her blood boil. The ideas of Friedman and Hayek persuaded her that things could be different.
在她迈入政坛之初，经济自由主义正处于节节败退之中，苏联正在延伸其帝国的疆域，弥尔顿·弗里德曼和弗雷德里希·哈耶克被当做是学术怪人而遭贬斥。在英国，政府正同工会组织打得火热（“在唐宁街10号推杯换盏”），他们一边给那些失败的国有化企业提供补贴，一边通过凯恩斯主义的需求管理论大力刺激经济。开始时，这位年轻有为的政治家随波逐流，对这种共识表示认同（见“非凡的政治家”）。但是，政治应当是“衰落管理”的流行观念令她热血沸腾。弗里德曼和哈耶克的思想使她明白，事情可以有所不同。
Most of this radicalism was hidden from the British electorate that voted her into office in 1979, largely in frustration with Labour's ineptitude. What followed was an economic revolution. She privatised state industries, refused to negotiate with the unions, abolished state controls, broke the striking miners and replaced Keynesianism with Friedman's monetarism. The inflation rate fell from a high of 27% in 1975 to 2.4% in 1986. The number of working days lost to strikes fell from 29m in 1979 to 2m in 1986. The top rate of tax fell from 83% to 40%.
她把这种激进主义的大部分内容都隐藏起来，英国选民把她选进政府的主要是出于对工党无能的失望。随后，一场经济革命拉开了大幕。她出售国有企业，拒绝同工会谈判，取消国家调控，打击罢工矿工，用弗里德曼的货币主义取代了凯恩斯主义。通货膨胀率从1975年高点时的27%下降到1986年的2.4%，因罢工而损失的工作日数量从1979年的2900万下降到1986年200万，最高税率从83%下降到40%。
Not for turning
绝不掉头
Her battles with the left—especially the miners—gave her a reputation as a blue-rinse Boadicea. But she was just as willing to clobber the right, sidelining old-fashioned Tory “wets” and unleashing her creed on conservative strongholds, notably by setting off the “big bang” in the City of London. Many of her pithiest put-downs were directed at her own side: “U-turn if you want to,” she told the Conservatives as unemployment passed 2m. “The lady's not for turning.” She told George Bush senior: “This is no time to go wobbly!” Ronald Reagan was her soulmate but lacked her sharp elbows and hostility to deficits.
她因同左派的斗争——尤其是同矿工的斗争——而赢得了“蓝发布迪卡女王”的声誉。不过，正如她愿意痛击右派一样，她也愿意排挤保守党内那些老朽的“温和派”，并且还以她的信条对保守派大本营发起攻击。她最精辟的针砭大都针对自己一方：“你们想掉头就掉头，”当失业人数超过200万时，她对保守党同僚说。“夫人不掉头。”她告诉老布什：“现在不是悠闲的时候！”罗纳德·里根是她的灵魂伴侣，但缺少她那种争强好胜和对赤字的敌意。
She might not be for turning, but she knew how to compromise. She seized on Mikhail Gorbachev as a man she “could do business with” despite warnings from American hawks. She backed down from a battle with the miners in 1981, waiting until she had built up sufficient reserves of coal three years later. For all her talk about reforming the welfare state, the public sector consumed almost the same proportion of GDP when she left office as when she came to it.
她也许不会掉头，但是她懂得如何妥协。尽管美国的鹰派时刻都在在警告她，但是她坚持认为米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫是一个可以“与之打交道”的人物；1981年，她从同矿工的斗争中撤退，并且一等就是三年，直到积攒了足够的煤炭储备后才发起进攻；尽管她总在谈论改革福利制度，但是，在她离任时，公共开支在GDP中的比例同她执政之初相比并没有出现增长。
She was also often outrageously lucky: lucky that the striking miners were led by Arthur Scargill, a hardline Marxist; lucky that the British left fractured and insisted on choosing unelectable leaders; lucky that General Galtieri decided to invade the Falkland Islands when he did; lucky that she was a tough woman in a system dominated by patrician men (the wets never knew how to cope with her); lucky in the flow of North Sea oil; and above all lucky in her timing. The post-war consensus was ripe for destruction, and a host of new forces, from personal computers to private equity, aided her more rumbustious form of capitalism.
她还是一个经常受到命运女神特别垂青的人。她的幸运在于，罢工矿工的领导人阿瑟·斯卡吉尔是一个强硬的马克思主义者；她的幸运在于，英国左派四分五裂，并且还坚持挑选了一位无法当选的领导人；她的幸运在于，当加尔铁里将军决定入侵福克兰群岛时，他竟然这样做了；她的幸运在于，在这个由贵族做派的男人（温和派从未懂得如何与她打交道）所主导的体系中，她是一个强硬的一个女人；她的幸运在于，北海的石油滚滚而来；总之，她是一个生逢其时的人。此时，打破旧世界的战后共识已经成熟，而从个人计算机到私募股权等各种新生力量又给她提供了更加具有活力的资本主义形式。
The verdict of history
历史的裁决
Criticism of her comes in two forms. First, that she could have done more had she wielded her handbag more deftly. Hatred, it is true, sometimes blinded her. Infuriated by the antics of left-wing local councils, she ended up centralising power in Whitehall. Her hostility to Eurocrats undermined her campaign to stop the drift of power to Brussels. Her stridency, from her early days as “Thatcher the milk snatcher” to her defenestration by her own party, was divisive. Under her the Conservatives shrank from a national force to a party of the rich south (see Bagehot). Tony Blair won several elections by offering Thatcherism without the rough edges.
对于她的批评来自两个方面。首先，如果她挥舞手提包的技巧在娴熟一些，她本应会有更大的成就。的确，仇恨有时迷住了她的双眼。当左派地方议会的古怪行把她激怒后，她把权力都收归到白厅；她对欧洲官僚的敌意破坏了其为阻止英国将权力移交给布鲁塞了所做的努力；她的强硬——从早期被称为“挤奶工的撒切尔”到被自己的政党所抛弃——导致争议不断；在她的领导下，保守党从一个全国性的政党沦落为南方富人阶层的政党（见“白芝浩”专栏）；托尼·布莱尔将撒切尔主义稍加修改就赢得了几次大选。
The second criticism addresses the substance of Thatcherism. Her reforms, it is said, sowed the seeds of the recent economic crisis. Without Thatcherism, the big bang would not have happened. Financial services would not make up such a large slice of the British economy and the country would not now be struggling under the burden of individual debt caused by excessive borrowing and government debt caused by the need to bail out the banks. Some of this is true; but then without Thatcherism Britain's economy would still be mired in state control, the commanding heights of its economy would be owned by the government and militant unions would be a power in the land.
第二种批评直指撒切尔主义的实质。有人认为，她的改革给近年来的经济危机买下了种子。如果没有撒切尔主义，就不会有”伦敦金融城大爆炸“，金融服务业也不会在英国经济中占据这么大的份额，国家也不会因过度借贷而导致的个人债务和因救助银行业的需求而带来的国家债务而挣扎。尽管有些论据言之有理，但是，如果没有了撒切尔主义，英国经济可能仍处于国家调控之下，经济制高点可能仍掌握在政府手中，武装起来的工会组织或许会成为这个国家中的一种势力。
Because of the crisis, the pendulum is swinging dangerously away from the principles Mrs Thatcher espoused. In most of the rich world, the state's share of the economy has stubbornly risen. Regulations—excessive as well as necessary—are tying up the private sector. Businesspeople are under scrutiny as they have not been for 30 years and bankers are everyone's favourite bogeyman. And with the rise of China state control, not economic liberalism, is being hailed as a model for emerging markets.
由于危机的出现，钟摆正在危险地摆离撒切尔夫人所拥护的原则。在大多数富裕国家中，经济中的国有成分一直在顽固地增长，必要的监管和过度的监管正在束缚住私营部门，商人正在接受30年来所未曾有过的审查，银行家成为人人眼中的妖怪。同时，随着中国的崛起，国家调控而不是经济自由主义正在受到新兴市场的追捧。
For a world in desperate need of growth, this is the wrong direction. Europe will never thrive until it frees up its markets. America will throttle its recovery unless it avoids overregulation. China will not sustain its success unless it starts to liberalise. This is a crucial time to hang on to Margaret Thatcher's central perception: that for countries to flourish, people need to push back against the advance of the state. What the world needs now is more Thatcherism, not less.
对于这个渴望增长的世界来说，这是一个错误的方向。不解放市场，欧洲永远不会繁荣；不避免过度监管，美国的复苏将被扼杀；不开启自由化，中国的成功不会持久。这是坚守玛格丽特·撒切尔核心思想的关键时刻：为了国家的繁荣，人民需要回击国家的进攻。当前，世界需要的是更多的撒切尔主义，而不是更少。