critique of new labour
NEW LABOUR, ITS INFLUENCES, IDEALS AND LIMITATIONS. INTRODUCTION In May 1997, following New Labour’s landslide victory in the general election, everyone was fascinated by the new government and how it may change the country after 18 years of Conservative administration. ... During this essay I will be discussing the origins of New Labour and the Third Way; I will also discuss social capital and communitarian ideologies, and argue that these ideas are not new, but have been cleverly interwoven into New Labours’ rhetoric. I will also discuss the role of work as a central part of New Labour’s welfare reforms, and argue that this policy is imported in whole from America. I will also discuss whether New Labour is actually ‘New’ or are they re-packaging old policies in a shiny new wrapper? Despite the derision and often contempt that the Third Way has received from both Left and Right, it does appear to be the most enduring attempt at a cogent and coherent ideology for New Labour. Anthony Giddens the ‘guru’ of New Labour is one of the leading proponents of the ideology and his rhetoric helps inform that of both Tony Blair and his ministers. ... It appears from political history that a political cycle takes around 25 years to grow, mature and dissipate, thus New Labour came to prominence almost a quarter of a century after neo-liberalism had passed through its cycle. The New Labour government and, indeed the Left in Britain more generally, are evidently still struggling to find and define the new ideology and programmes which they can confidently call their own. ... While old labour redistributed money through taxes and state benefit, new labour sees redistribution through life chances, employment opportunities and lifelong learning. ... While new labour has been criticised for abandoning the pursuit of greater equality of income through the ‘standard mechanism’ of taxes and state benefits, it has received less praise for attempts to improve the equality of health and education. ... The forward march of Labour is therefore stalled. The British Labour party is not only on the defensive but could be seen in a state of ideological liquidation. In New Labour language, this is what they now call ‘claiming the centre ground’. ... With an emphasis on modernisation, national renewal and a young country, it might be considered that everything associated with new labour would be ‘new’. ... For example New Labour went from opposing to implementing Conservative private finance initiative policies. New Labour is using the private sector far more in areas such as healthcare; this marks the end of the so called ‘cold war’ between Labour and the private sector. ... New Labour proposes partnership and co-operation instead of hierarchical command and control or competition. ... New Labour claims to have broken the party’s ‘tax and spend image’. New Labour, according to Blair and Brown will be wise spenders, not big spenders (a false claim given the large borrowing requirement). ... However the perception that Tony Blair has not delivered on the NHS has led to a reversal of this policy and a shunning of the target related culture of New Labour. The most striking parallels between the New Democrats and New Labour are in the centrality of work, moves towards a more conditional welfare state; flexibility in the labour market and ‘zero tolerance’ on crime and failing public services (Marquand 1998, Driver and Martell 1998 et al).While the parallels with the USA are clear, it is an oversimplification to regard all of New Labour’s welfare reforms as US cloning. New Labour is influenced from many other countries such as Australia, welfare to work is arguably the central pillar of the welfare reform, and it is not the only reform New Labour envisages. Much of recent Republican and Democratic social policy has seen devolved power from the centre, whereas it can be strongly argued that New Labour has increased centrality, despite Rhetoric calling for smaller government. NEW LABOUR AND COMMUNITARIANISM Many social commentators have remarked that New Labour has been deeply influenced by the thoughts and research done by Amitai Etzioni and the neo-communitarian movement. Driver and Martell, stipulate that communitarianism ‘is New Labour’s answer to Thatcherism; so too is it to Blair’s rebuff to Old Labour. ... Ruth Levitas also recognises the strong influence, she points to the centrality that both Etzioni and New Labour give to the family as well as to community (1998, p128). In the case of New Labour this emphasis leads to the conclusion that families “are primarily institutions of social control and social welfare.