The New Labour and the Welfare State

Extract

[...] This division follows an ongoing debate on the role of the New Labor concerning the evolution of the welfare state. For example, to illustrate the difficulties in analyzing the New Labor's contribution to the lasting of two very different political traditions, Smith said in 2001 that the party is “essentially ambiguous” and follows “often contradictory and conflicting traditions of social democracy, social conservatism, Thatcherism and pragmatism”. To make the case for the resemblance between neo-liberalism and the policies conducted by the New Labor, I will briefly expose how Thatcherism challenged the post war consensus on welfare, and then I will try to illustrate the impact that it has had on the New Labor by presenting the characteristics of the welfare programme that can be labelled as neo-liberal. [...]

[...] The state actually accepts the responsibility to improve the employability of its citizens through education and training, but does not see itself as an employer of last resort. The notion of responsibility is very important, as it is part of the political vocabulary of the conservatives, as opposed to the left tradition, more in favour of the rights of the citizens. However, Giddens proposes in 1998 “no rights without responsibilities”. With the New Labor, there is a very different view of human nature as it was in the traditional left, as the citizen is perceived as almost only motivated by its personal gain. [...]

[...] In that way, entrepreneurship was encouraged, and inequality was seen as an incentive. If we consider this conception of the welfare as neo-liberalist, then the point can be easily made that the New Labour has been strongly influenced by the Thatcher tradition. In fact, Driver and Martell refer to its actions as “post-Thatcher politics”. The goal of the New Labor is to find a certain balance between economic success and social inclusion, which implies the balance between the market and the community. [...]

[...] Public/ private partnership and the voluntary sector will have and should have a greater role to play”. In fact, the New Labor and the conservatives have the same emphasis on individual customer service rather than provider-led welfare. This entrepreneurial culture that the New Labor wants to create is encouraged by a tax system that rewards those who take risks. There is in fact a real ideological change: the government does not want anymore to tax the rich as a matter of principle. [...]

[...] To conclude, there is a considerable ideological and pragmatic shift with the New Labor towards the embracement of a Thatcher tradition, and therefore there is a distortion from the old labour tradition of welfare. However, it would not be accurate to affirm that the New Labor's approach to welfare issues is indistinguishable from the ones of the governments of Thatcher and Major. Therefore, even if it is necessary to affirm that there is a neo-liberal influence on the New Labor, a more nuanced approach would be preferable, acknowledging the different political traditions that have influenced it, as well as its own initiatives. [...]