New Labour and the politics of depoliticisation (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Domestic Origins of Depoliticisation in the Area of British Economic Policy1
The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 2005
This article seeks to build on Peter Burnham's analysis of New Labour's depoliticisation statecraft as set out in an earlier volume of this journal. While Burnham provides a convincing account of how this new governing strategy differed from earlier 'politicised' methods of governance, we know less about why such change took place. Burnham makes a start by suggesting that developments in the international financial system go some way to explaining this shift. The main argument of this article is that this account of change needs to be supplemented by a focus on domestic factors. It is asserted below that politicised strategies failed in part because state managers governed within a strategically selective context which penalised the deployment of more activist and discretionary policy instruments in industrial affairs. Instead, this context was more favourable to the depoliticisation techniques which have emerged in the 1980s and the 1990s.
From Thatcherism to Blairism. Britain's Long March to the Market
This article offers a critical assessment of the social and political reforms promoted by the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1979 to 1997, and subsequently by New Labour under Tony Blair. First, the underlying philosophy and practical achievements of the Conservative governments is discussed. Second, the nature and impact of New Labour's policies since taking office seven years ago is reviewed. I argue that both administrations have shared similar concerns, namely, to refashion British culture and society so as to make them more entrepreneurial and better able to face the challenges posed by an increasingly globalised economy. What distinguishes these two cultural projects is New Labour's concern for social inclusion, rejecting the Conservatives' crude 'sink or swim' Darwinism. However, New Labour has attempted to advance inclusion through a revised, minimalist conception of social justice, that is, a conception which grants full validity to the New Right critique of the 'entitlements society'. Both programmes are also characterised by remarkably similar policies. New Labour has taken further the Conservatives' effort to promote administrative decentralisation while engendering political centralisation. Given their similarity, it is not surprising that both programmes have shown analogous dysfunctional side-effects. On the one hand, the free-market policies devised to make Britain a business-friendly and economically flexible country have increased inequalities and have entrenched social, economic and geographical divides—outcomes which New Labour's meek redistributive policies fail to redress. On the other hand, the structural reforms pursued by both parties, far from reducing the role of the state in society, have reinforced some deep-seated tendencies of the British political system towards what Lord Hailsham (1978) called an 'elective dictatorship'.
Modernisation by Consensus: the Impact of the Policy Process on British Economic Policy 1945-64
Policy, 2001
In October 1999 Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave the Mais lecture at the City University. He took as his theme 'The conditions for full employment' and used the famous 1944 White Paper on Employment Policy as his starting point (http//www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/press/1999/p168\_99.html). From this he proceeded to give a potted history of the development of economic policy in Britain and to highlight the reasons why postwar governments, both Labour and Conservative, had failed to maintain full employment and growth. Central to his analysis was the need, recognised in the White Paper, for the achievement of four conditions, stability, employability, productivity and responsibility, if employment policy was to be successful. Postwar governments had failed to achieve this necessary combination of requirements, whereas, with typical politician's optimism, the current Labour government had put in place a framework of policies which would correct these previous failings (Eccleshall 2000, pp.157-8).
‘How Labour Governs – Lessons for Today’,
The Hummer, vol.5, no. 2, pp. 6-12, 2009
This is an edited version of a talk at the Sydney branch of the Australian Society for the Study Labour History, 29 July 2008, during the debate about privatising the NSW electricity supply. It reflects on lessons that may be drawn from Gordon Childe's 1923 book, How Labour Governs, in order to understand this dispute.
This chapter argues that the literature on depoliticization tends to overlook the structural context within which depoliticization processes take place and, in particular, the way in which depoliticization strategies are embedded within distinctively capitalist forms of social organization. Too often, analysis focuses on categorizing different ‘types’ of depoliticization processes or outcomes, while neglecting to examine how depoliticization strategies are utilizsed as a discursive tool for embedding or shoring up dominant models of economic growth. The chapter seeks to resituate depoliticization in the political economy framework developed originally by Peter Burnham, while acknowledging that Burnham’s reductionist approach to institutions has paradoxically encouraged subsequent scholars to largely ignore structural context in characterizing instances of depoliticization. The chapter offers a preliminary application of an alternative political economy approach by examining macroeconomic policymaking in the post-crisis period in the United Kingdom, focusing on the Help to Buy scheme and the Office for Budget Responsibility.