New Labour in the Global Economy: Partisan Politics and the Social Democratic Model

2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Wickham-Jones
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wage Moderation ◽  
The Social

Drawing on a framework developed by Geoffrey Garrett in his recent book Partisan Politics in the Global Economy, I examine the ‘policy space’ that is available for the social democratic project in the United Kingdom. Garrett is optimistic about the possibilities for reformism: he emphasises the ability of an ‘encompassing’ labour movement to exchange wage restraint for reformist policies. Given the absence of such an encompassing labour movement in the United Kingdom, his conclusion apparently offers little support to those seeking reformist measures in these circumstances. I discuss three reasons why Garrett's model may still be applicable in the British context. First, social democrats may be able to offer policies desirable to capital. Second, wage moderation may be possible without the existence of an encompassing labour movement. Third, and most ambitious, it may be possible to develop an encompassing labour movement within the United Kingdom. My tentative conclusion is that a variant of the Garrett model is potentially a plausible one for a reformist party in the United Kingdom.

scholarly journals Lost in Transition - Where Are All the Social Democrats Today?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Bischof ◽  
Thomas Kurer
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Generational Cohort ◽  
Liberal Party ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Decision To Leave ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Factor

This chapter follows individual voter flows using panel data for Social Democrats in Germany (1984-2018), the United Kingdom (1991-2018) and Switzerland (1999-2018). To our knowledge this chapter, thus, provides the first long running study of individual voting transitions amongst Social Democratic voters, following their transitions for almost 40 years. The key goal of this chapter is to understand where initial voters of the Social Democrats are today and which individual level characteristics correlate with leaving SDs. We find: 1) Social Democrats manage to keep some of their core 2) but a lot of their core gets de-mobilized or moves on to more progressive options (Greens, LibDem, Green Liberal Party). 3) SDs struggle in all countries to attract new voters, less so in Switzerland which we think is at least partly due to the progressive offer provided by the SP. In contrast, the German SPD loses to everyone and gains almost nothing. We also find evidence that SDs die out: the key factor correlated with `leaving' is the generational cohort Social Democrats belong to. In contrast, often theorized and emphasized factors such as occupation, income or unemployment show much smaller correlations with former Social Democrats' decision to leave the party behind.

scholarly journals Remaking the People’s Park: Heritage Renewal Troubled by Past Political Struggles?

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-103
Author(s):  
Johan Pries ◽  
Erik Jönsson
Keyword(s):  
Development Process ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Radical Politics ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
The City

This article explores how a series of heritage-driven renewal plans in the Swedish city Malmö dealt with a landscape deeply shaped by radical politics: Malmö People’s Park (Folkets Park). Arguing against notions of heritage where the past is essentially considered a malleable resource for present commercial or political concerns, we scrutinise plans for the People’s Park from the 1980s onward to emphasise how even within renewal attempts built on seemingly uncontroversial nostalgic readings of the park’s past, tensions proved impossible to keep at bay. This had profound effects on the studied development process. Established by the city’s social-democratic labour movement in 1891, the People’s Park is both enmeshed with historical narratives, and full of material artefacts left by a century when the Social Democrats had a decisive presence in the city. As municipal planners and politicians targeted this piece of land, the tensions they had to navigate included not only what present ideas to bring to bear on the making of heritage, but also how to deal with past politics and the park as a material landscape. Our findings point to how the kinds of labour politics that had faded for decades became impossible to dismiss in urban renewal. Both political representations and de-politicising nostalgic representations of Malmö People’s Park’s past provoked (often unexpected) resistance undoing planning visions.

A (Personal) French View of the Referendum Debate

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Dixon
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Cultural Imagination ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Nationalist Movements ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Gradual Shift

Historically, there has been a lack of a clear French vision of the multinational nature of the United Kingdom. A gradual shift towards a clearer understanding has been demonstrated by a well-informed and even-handed presentation of the referendum debate in the French media. This article examines the presentation of that debate, as well as Scotland's increasing familiarity in France's cultural imagination. In politics there has been neither much enthusiasm nor overt hostility to the referendum, although a lingering suspicion of nationalist movements, wherever they might be, means that many French are surprised to discover the broadly social-democratic, pro-European and ‘civic’ nature of Scotland's nationalism.

Czech Social Democracy and its “cohabitation” with the Communist Party: The story of a neglected affair

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lubomír Kopeček ◽  
Pavel Pšeja
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Unsuccessful Attempt ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

This article attempts to analyze developments within the Czech Left after 1989. Primarily, the authors focus on two questions: (1) How did the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) achieve its dominance of the Left? (2)What is the relationship between the Social Democrats and the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM)? We conclude that the unsuccessful attempt to move the KSČM towards a moderate leftist identity opened up a space in which the Social Democrats could thrive, at the same time gradually assuming a pragmatic approach towards the Communists. Moreover, the ability of Miloš Zeman, the leader of the Social Democrats, to build a clear non-Communist Left alternative to the hegemony of the Right during the 1990s was also very important.

The Social Relations of Business Representation and Devolved Governance in the United Kingdom

2003 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 1853-1876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Raco
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Cooperative Networks ◽  
Regional Governance ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Business Interests ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
Policymaking And Implementation ◽  
And Performance

The reform of regional governance in the United Kingdom has been, in part, premised on the notion that regions provide new territories of action in which cooperative networks between business communities and state agencies can be established. Promoting business interests is seen as one mechanism for enhancing the economic competitiveness and performance of ‘laggard’ regions. Yet, within this context of change, business agendas and capacities are often assumed to exist ‘out there’, as a resource waiting to be tapped by state institutions. There is little recognition that business organisations' involvement in networks of governance owes much to historical patterns and practices of business representation, to the types of activities that exist within the business sector, and to interpretations of their own role and position within wider policymaking and implementation networks. This paper, drawing on a study of business agendas in post-devolution Scotland, demonstrates that in practice business agendas are highly complex. Their formation in any particular place depends on the actions of reflexive agents, whose perspectives and capacities are shaped by the social, economic, and political contexts within which they are operating. As such, any understanding of business agendas needs to identify the social relations of business as a whole, rather than assuming away such complexities.

Reconfiguring professional autonomy? The case of social work in the UK

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Chandler ◽  
Elisabeth Berg ◽  
Marion Ellison ◽  
Jim Barry
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Professional Autonomy ◽  
The Third ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk

This chapter discusses the contemporary position of social work in the United Kingdom, and in particular the challenges to what is seen as a managerial-technicist version of social work. The chapter begins with focus on the situation from the 1990s to the present day in which this version of social work takes root and flourishes. The discussion then concentrates on three different routes away from a managerial-technicist social work: the first, reconfiguring professional practice in the direction of evaluation in practice, the second ‘reclaiming social work’ on the Hackney relationship-based model and the third ‘reclaiming social work’ in a more radical, highly politicised way. Special attention is devoted to a discussion about how much autonomy the social workers have in different models, but also what kind of autonomy and for what purpose.

scholarly journals Ethiopian and Eritrean Immigrants in Britain

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Campbell ◽  
Solomon Afework
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Policy Context ◽  
Immigrant Settlement ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Refugee Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Aspects

This paper explores key aspects of the immigrant experience of 50,000-plus Ethiopians and Eritreans who live in the United Kingdom. We seek to understand the extent to which immigrant life in the UK has acted ‘as a kind of pivot’ between integrating in their country of settlement and enduring forms of connection with their country of origin. This question is explored by an examination of immigrant organising in the UK – in Refugee Community Organisations – and through interviews about their life in the UK and evolving ideas about self-identity. We argue for an open-ended approach to understand immigrants which sidesteps assumptions about forms of collective identity and which asks how the social and policy context has affected immigrant settlement and integration in the UK.

scholarly journals The Application of the Constitutional Convention in Malaysia

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Nazri Muslim ◽  
Osman Md Rasip ◽  
Khairul Hamimah Mohammad Jodi ◽  
Abdullah Ibrahim ◽  
Otong Rosadi
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Ethics ◽  
Constitutional Convention ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Federal Constitution ◽  
The Social

In Malaysia, there is no one institution that can outdo the supremacy of the Federal Constitution. Even the three government bodies that refer to the power separation doctrine which is the legislative, judiciary and executive bodies even the Yang di-Pertuan Agong are under this Federal Constitution. The constitution can be divided into two, written and non-written constitution. The written constitution is the form of constitution that is gathered and arranged in one document. The non-written counterpart encompasses all of the constitutional principles not compiled in one document such as the law endorsed by the Parliament and the verdicts of the court such as in the United Kingdom. Other than the constitution, there are certain practices that are thought to be part of the principles of the constitution. This is known as the Constitutional Convention or the customary practice of the Constitution. Constitutional convention is a non-legislative practice and it is similar to the political ethics and not enforced in court. Although it seems trivial, it is important for this practice to be complied with, otherwise it is difficult for the constitution to work successfully as the constitutional convention cannot be brought to court and forced to be obeyed. Thus, the discussion of this article rests on the constitutional convention in terms of the social contract, the appointment of the Prime Minister, the appointment of the country’s main positions and collective responsibility.

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