To what extent is Blair's New Labour party the true heir to Thatcherism?

Résumé du document

Thatcherism may be defined as the economic, social and political ideas and particular style of leadership associated with Margaret Thatcher. The British Prime Minister who served the nation from 1979 to 1990, believed in a mixture of neo-liberal beliefs in the free market and neo-conservative social attitudes and beliefs about the limited role of government. (Jones et al. 2004: 797). The Thatcherism revolution in British politics and the conservative domination in Westminster from 1979 to 1997 were provoked by counterpoint deep changes in the Labor party. After having been tempted by an electorally disastrous left-wing set of policies, the Labor party had knowledge about the 1983 general election defeat that was tilted towards a large movement of ideological renewal. Undertaken by Neil Kinnock, pursued by John Smith and achieved by Tony Blair, this wide wave of internal reforms has led to the now called ?New Labor'. We question as to what extent is Blair's New Labor the true heir to Thatcherism. It seems the influence of the Thatcher years and of some of the ideas of the New Right under the current ruling party is undisputable.

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[...] Thus, one of the first things he did when he reached the head of the Labour was to rewrite its constitution, especially the clause IV relative to the socialism-through- nationalization goal. It is moreover not a secret that the prime minister is more at ease with the business men of the City than with the representatives of Trade Unions. In this point of view, the reluctance of Tony Blair to recognize the waning links of the New Labour with Trade unions is indicative of this will to break with Old Left tradition: no return to ‘beer and sandwiches at No.10.' All the previous points can find their counterpart in new ideological approaches within New Labour, mainly issued from the New Right movement, which found in British society with Thatcherism its political expression. [...]

[...] New Labour appears thereby at first sight as the actual heir of Thatcherism. However, this impression must be temperate by the fact that Blair's New Labour represents above all an attempt to go beyond Thatcherism, through the ideas of the ‘Third Way'. New Labour abandons a lot of left' politics, essentially issued from the founder tradition of Labour, created in 1906 by Trade Unions from a grass-roots working-class movement. It seems to have replaced them by right' concepts, which propose an alternative to the alleged failure of post-war consensus politics. [...]

[...] Socially, Blair's New Labour is much more open to alternative forms of families, whereas Thatcherism considered all these changes as ‘deviant'. It introduced thereby the civil partnership, and implemented some liberal reforms, such as 24-hours pubs or decriminalization of cannabis. However, New Labour seems also to be touch by some authoritarian movements: ban smoking in public, planned ID card and above all continuity with the Thatcherite policy of increasing police resources and numbers. According to Tony Wright (Jones et al. [...]

[...] What new has created Blair's New Labour? The best way to approach it seems simply to consider an extract of the new clause IV of the Labour Party, written by Tony Blair himself: Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many and not the few, where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe, and where live together freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect' (Gould 1998: 229, quoted by Jones et al. [...]

[...] Thus, where post-war consensus was based upon full-employment, Keynesianism, mixed economy and Welfare State, New Labour speaks now of ‘full employability' and monetarism. It acknowledges also the supremacy of the market and the necessity to reform the Welfare State, namely to reduce its generosity. For New Labour, as for Thatcherism before, the economic priority is from now on to control the money-supply, that is, to have low inflation. On the contrary, the unemployment is view either as something voluntary, or as something unavoidable. [...]