Without a Song in their Heart: New Labour, the Welfare State and the Retreat from Democratic Socialism

@article{Page2006WithoutAS,
  title={Without a Song in their Heart: New Labour, the Welfare State and the Retreat from Democratic Socialism},
  author={Robert Page},
  journal={Journal of Social Policy},
  year={2006},
  volume={36},
  pages={19 - 37},
  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:145103604}
}
Since coming to power in May 1997, New Labour has been criticised by many Party traditionalists for failing to follow the democratic socialist path laid out by the Attlee, Wilson and Callaghan governments. However, New Labour believes that adherence to a doctrinaire political philosophy is ill suited to contemporary economic and social realities. Accordingly, they have opted to govern on a ‘non-ideological’ pragmatic basis. To this end, they have sought to ensure that the welfare state operates… 
View on Cambridge Press
31 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
17
Methods Citations
1

31 Citations

New Labour and the continuation of Thatcherite policy.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the extent to which new Labour, on entering office in 1997, continued the policies put in place by previous Thatcherite governments. In economic policy,…

Social exclusion and young people : a critical realist strong late modern analytic

When New Labour came to power in 1997, one of the best known social policy changes they made was the prioritisation of social exclusion as at the vanguard of government policy, through the…

Towards an enabling state? : work and employment in state-citizen relations in England 1880-2007

This study represents the intellectual biography of an idea. That idea is the Welfare to Work regime of the New Labour government of Tony Blair over the period 1997 to 2007. This Welfare to Work…

A Welfare Consensus?Social Policy from Thatcher to Blair

Research Abstract A Welfare Consensus? Social Policy from Thatcher to Blair This thesis examines two central aspects of asset management by central government with special reference to health…

Education in 'late' modernity : a critical analysis of New Labour reform, 1997-2007

New Labour entered into government in 1997 with a stated intention to develop a new consensus in education. This was to be practical rather than ideological in its basis, and was to provide a…

Why did Frank Field fail? New Labour and welfare reform, 1997-8.

This thesis considers the development of welfare reform policy by the British Labour government in the period 1997-8, with a particular emphasis on the role and ideas of Frank Field, Minister of…

Social exclusion: re-examining its conceptual relevance to tackling inequality and social injustice

This paper rationalises the continued conceptual utility of social exclusion, and in so doing addresses the prevailing question of what to do with it. This is relevant from social exclusion’s…

The training-to-work trajectory: pressures for and subversions to participation in the neoliberal learning market in the UK

The UK government has emphasised the role of lifelong learning in eradicating social exclusion and improving productivity and the skills base. With a neoliberal rationale that normalises economic…

Policy responses to partnered women outside the labour market : what can Britain learn from Australia and Denmark?

This thesis compares policies in Australia and Denmark relevant to assisting women from workless couples into work, with a focus on policy learning for Britain. The research uses case studies…

‘What matters is what works’: Labour's journey from ‘national superannuation’ to ‘personal accounts’

A key element of Labour's response to the Pensions Commission's recommendations for ‘a new pension settlement for the twenty-first century’ is a system of ‘personal accounts’ that will be…

71 References

New Labour: New Christian Democracy?

The rise of New Labour and its associated politics of the 'third way' is undoubtedly one of the most talked about political phenomena of the past decade. Few, though, can agree on just what it is…

Why so Austere? The British Welfare State of the 1940s

The reforms of the welfare system under the 1945 Labour government are usually regarded as fundamental in creating the post-war welfare state. Yet, measured by their financial implications, and…

‘Not Reformed Capitalism, But… Democratic Socialism’: The Ideology of the Labour Leadership, 1945–1951

The Labour Party’s leadership in the 1940s, in contrast to its successors in the 1980s and 1990s, never felt self-conscious or embarrassed about seeing the label ‘socialist’ applied to their…

Let us face the future : a declaration of labour policy for the consideration of the nation

Victory is assured for us and our allies in the European war. The war in the East goes the same way. The British Labour Party is firmly resolved that Japanese barbarism shall be defeated just as…

Market Means and Welfare Ends: The UK Welfare State Experiment

The UK is distinctive in having the most liberal market-oriented welfare system in the European Union and the most majoritarian governmental system, capable of rapid and decisive action. The 1997 New…

The Ambiguities of the Third Way

What does New Labour stand for? What is its ambition for British society? What is the public philosophy in terms of which it seeks to mobilize activists and citizens and how does this public…

Social Change, Values and Political Agency: The Case of the Third Way

The third way is based on both sociological claims about a changed world, and normative propositions about appropriate conduct within that world. Four types of claim concerning the relationship…

Democratic Socialism and Economic Policy: The Attlee Years, 1945–1951. By Jim Tomlinson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Pp. xiv, 331. $64.95

century is due to increasing complaints about trivial discomforts that would not have bothered our stoic forbears. That is, we are like our forbears in important ways. He relates the effects on…

The Political Economy of New Labour: Labouring Under False Pretences?

    C. Hay
    Political Science, Economics
  • 1999
Contextualizing novelty - the legacy of Thatcherism, the prospect of globalization Labour's Thatcherite revisionism - the policy review process and "the politics of catch-up" on New Labour's ups and…

Making Sense of New Labour

This book makes sense of New Labour by interpreting its ideas and practices as symptoms of the times in which we live. Making Sense of New Labour is an in-depth study, interpreting a wide range of…
...