Has Third Way politics brought about radical change?

Résumé du document

With special reference to one or two policy areas, critically discuss whether Third Way politics has brought about radical change.

Extraits

[...] Indeed, this overall approach insisting on standards and employability bears great resemblance with New Labour's emphasis on the desirability of links between education and employers. Therefore, since 1997 we have witnessed no retreat of the state, but rather a new way of thinking the state intervention, while sticking to strict financial rules. As Steven Fielding argues, there is still a continuity with Labour and an obvious change with the Thatcher years: New Labour has moved from its electoral strategy to present itself as more Thatcherite than it was, to become less shy about the virtues of public spending and the need for better-funded public services to reduce poverty and increase equality[25]. [...]

[...] New Labour in power”, Parliamentary Affairs (Vol N 2003), p Ibid. Ibid. Steven Fielding, Op. cit., p Ben Pimlott, future of the in Robert Skidelski Thatcherism (Basil Blackwell, 1989), p Steven Fielding, Op. cit., p Paul Johnson, Labour: a distinctive vision of welfare policy?”, in Stuart White New Labour, The Progressive Future? (Palgrave, 2001), p Anne Daguerre, “Importing workfare: policy transfer of social and labour market policies from the USA to Britain under New Labour”, Social Policy and administration (Vol 2004), p Paul Johnson, Op. [...]

[...] We will try to show that the German SPD and Labour still position themselves in the tradition of British and German social-democracy, while having brought new concerns to social-democratic values (to a greater extent for Labour). Therefore, the concern with equality of opportunity has replaced the commitment to equality of outcome, a greater concern with flexibility has been brought to the idea of labour market protection, a new rhetoric links social rights with duties and responsibilities, and both parties have taken into account the rise of individualism among Western societies. [...]

[...] A closer look at New Labour's policies since 1997 indeed reveals a great deal of continuity with the Thatcher-Major governments and some major departures from social-democratic thinking. This specificity was highlighted recently, when Tony Blair confronted Jacques Chirac (the centre- right French President) over the extension of social rights in the draft European Constitution. It is indeed quite revealing to note that New Labour has been praised by some free-marketeers within Chirac's party, such as Finance minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whereas the French socialists have more or less tried to distance themselves from their British counterparts. [...]

[...] With provocative statements such as “there is no such thing as society”, Margaret Thatcher emphasised individualism and personal effort. As Steven Fielding argues, she promoted the belief that poverty was more the result of laziness than social circumstances, and for her, excessive taxation for welfare spending would fail to address the causes of poverty, and also reduce the incentives to work[7]. On the traditional social-democratic battleground of welfare, New Labour came with a new rhetoric on rights and responsibility and insisted that its policies were framed to make work pay. [...]