Roundtable: revisiting the 1984 US presidential election

Studiesperceptions of the Reagan administration and played a key role in defining the president's image.Dr Anthony Eames expanded the discussion further so as to consider the international implications of Reagan's re-election.This focused on Reagan's relationship with Margaret Thatcher and how his approach to Cold War strategy played into the 1984 campaign's narrative of American renewal and strength.Professor Iwan Morgan concluded the panel by assessing the lasting implications of the 1984 election.He argued that Reagan's landslide cemented low-tax, free-market conservatism as a dominant force in American politics and laid the groundwork for the end of the Cold War and the emergence of Bill Clinton's Democratic Party.The panellists subsequently engaged with broader questions about the nature of incumbency, the role of social issues, and the shifting ideological battle lines in American politics.