200696031 PIED3170 The End of British Politics David Cameron’s Conservatives have pursued an approach to reforming the state, which clearly differs from that of previous governments’. Discuss and include reference to the notion of the ‘Big Society’ in your answer Word count: 3152 Stuart McAnulla This discussion will compromise of three separate sections. Firstly, this essay will put forward a possible argument against the statement in hand, suggesting that Cameron’s Conservatives constructed a triangulated narrative similar to that of Blair’s Third Way. In making this argument, this section will firstly define the Third Way as outlined by Giddens (1999, 2003) and then give a description of how it’s ideas were …show more content…
The focus of this argument will be on the period after the 2007 recession, examining how Cameron’s cutting agenda highlighted strands of continuity with the Thatcher Government (Smith, 2010). It will further argue that the depth, speed and anti-statist nature of these cuts highlight the Thatcherite agenda that David Cameron has. Similarly, it will contend that the Big Society is an extension of this agenda as it allows Cameron to portray harsh Thatcherite rollbacks as centrist policies (Mabbett, 2013). In order to answer this question, I will firstly define Thatcher’s approach to reforming the state (Kavanagh, 1992). This will allow me to assess whether continuity can be identified. Whilst there are many arguments that suggest Cameron has always displayed Thatcherite tendencies, this section will focus on Cameron’s policy after the financial crash. The last section of the essay will put forward the argument that Cameron’s approach to reforming the state clearly differs to that of previous Governments (Alderwick, 2012). This argument will focus on how Cameron’s reforming agenda draws upon anti-statist ideas that conflict significantly with those of …show more content…
To do this would be to ignore the ways in which Cameron has rejected and revised much of Thatcherism (Kerr, Byrne and Foster, 2011). As outlined in the first section, Cameron has embraced some elements of the public services (McAnulla, 2010). Despite this stance softening due to the financial crisis, Cameron has maintained a broad commitment to the public services through the ideas contained within the Big Society (Smith, 2010). Specifically, Cameron has argued in favour of allowing charities, social enterprises and companies to provide public services. In this sense the Big Society arguably provides an alternative vision, reconciling the tension of reducing state spending whilst maintaining Labour’s welfare commitments. This formulation of policy represents a step change from the Governments of Thatcher who chose to abandon many of the state commitments to providing public services entirely (Kavanagh,
The conservative party has been in existence since the 1670s and was first called the ‘Tories’, a term used by the Scottish and Irish to describe a robber. This party is a right- wing party which believed in conserving the tradition and the king, as the name entails. David Cameron, the current party leader became the leader in 2005. He is also the present prime minister of Great Britain and he has made a lot of changes since he became the leader of the party. In this essay, I will talk about the history of the party, looking into detail at their gradual changes or transition in ideology and the various changes that David Cameron has made to the party’s image and beliefs.
Heath’s premiership during the years of 1970 to 1974 presents a period of affluence and appeasement alongside a lack of control indicates that Heath’s reign largely was a failure in maintaining stability. Despite the achievements that Heath implemented like Brittain finally getting into the EEC, the Oil Crisis, U-turn policies and the rest of the economic failures overshadow the policies that provided stability and modernisation establishing that Heath, according to Row ‘was good at policies not politics.’
This essay will address whether New Labour contained policies with which it wished to pursue, or was solely developed in order to win elections. It is important to realise whether a political party that held office for approximately 13 years only possessed the goal of winning elections, or promoted policies which it wished to pursue. If a party that held no substance was governing for 13 years, it would be unfair to the people. New Labour was designed to win elections, but still contained policies which it wished to pursue. To adequately defend this thesis, one must look at the re-branding steps taken by New Labour and the new policies the party was going to pursue. Through analysis, it will be shown that New Labour promoted policies in regards
Here, Reagan critiques the uncontrolled development of the, then, current welfare state, which he argued was kicked off by monumental reforms such as Roosevelt’s New Deal and extended through Johnson’s Great Society pursuits.
I will be attempting to evaluate and analyse the term of Thatcherism'. I will raise issues and introduce her consensus and strategies as a PM. To what extent or degree has the Thatcher government dominated British politics.
The Modern and Classical strands of liberalism share similar principles – indeed if they did not, it would be wrong to classify them as two strands of the same ideology. It seems the fundamental differences between them rely on the ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ views, which define them and which lead on to the fundamental opposition inherent in liberalism: the role of the state.
Conservative Dominance in British Politics There are many different factors which contributed to the Conservative dominance of the period between 1885 and 1905. For one, the electoral reform of Gladstone's second ministry had a large effect on the Conservatives period in office as did the skill of Salisbury as a leader. The role that the government took in terms of its policies and foreign policy, and the nature of support for the party also played important roles in the conservative dominance. This is because the Conservatives lost working class support during its ministry, yet still managed to dominate politics for nearly twenty years.
This essay will attempt to assess the impact of the 1942 Beveridge Report on the post 1945 UK welfare state. A welfare state is essentially ‘policy intervention through the state [to provide] forms of support and protection’ for all its citizens. (Alcock: 1998: 4) This means that the state will fund or provide provisions for services which are of need to its citizens. This is funded through citizens who pay taxes or National Insurance when they have active work, which in turn helps out the vulnerable members within a society. This concept is in essence designed to maintain the welfare of citizens from birth to the grave.
The Thatcherism ideology was part of the establishment of privatisation, cutting off the taxes and reducing public expenditure in health and care services in order to improve Britain’s economy, as a consequence more than 50 identities were privatised by
Although little agreement remains on the details of the third way, ‘opportunity’ and ‘responsibility’ are commonly suggested as its core values. New Labour’s pursuit of equality of opportunities is clearly distinctive from the old labour’s goal of equality of outcomes. Rather than traditional distributive goals of old labour achieved by income redistribution and wage policy, New Labour pursued to redistribute the primary endowments of skills and jobs by ensuring people the right to education, training, and support. Yet in a sense, this pursuit means New Labour accepts growing inequalities inherited from the Conservative government as the status-quo of society, which seems to contrast to the egalitarianism of the old
In 1997, Tony Blair of the labour party won the United Kingdom’s general election on the ideology, goals and a party manifesto of a ‘new labour’, a revision, an update and a reform of the old labour party, bringing new radical politics to the 20th century - although some believe that labour only won the election due to the British publics increasing hate for Thatcher and the conservatives. The term new labour was a reflection on how the labour party was trying to reform itself and depart from the ideas of ‘old labour’ that had failed to win an election since 1974 and take on new ideas and politics that seemed radical, new and progressive and that would regain trust from the British voters. ‘New labour, new for Britain’ was the slogan that first appeared on the party’s manifesto in 1996 and soon became the party’s main slogan for the campaign of the 1997 elections. But how exactly was new labour new? New labour was trying to become more progressive with its politics that reformed all of the key policy domains that the government were interested in. By attempting to reform the party’s manifesto as well as clause IV, new labour attempted to become a new party that could progress British politics rather than rely on traditional politics of old labour. New labour wanted to modernise the party’s by perusing their traditional goals which include job support, economic growth, investments in public services, welfare and redistribution but they also wanted new progressive politics that catered to the minority groups in terms of social justice, for example civil partnerships (King,2002). However, some argue that new labour was not particularly ‘new’ and instead that Blair’s government had betrayed the traditions of the labour party and inst...
Britain had always adopted a laissez-faire approach to the running of the country; meaning that the state had little or no interference in the economic concerns of society or individuals (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). However, when Labour won the election in 1945, Clement Atlee, the new prime minister, endeavoured to eradicate poverty, homelessness, illness, inequalities in education, and unemployment (Alcock, May & Wright, 2012). Before the decade was over Britain boasted universal benefits for all British subjects such as Family Allowance, National Insurance (NI), and the National Health Service (NHS). Additionally, by 1951, the construction of one million social homes had taken place.
Although Spads have existed since the Harold Wilson government in 1960s, she traces their rise to the early years of the 1980’s Conservative government. She said: “I found that government has relied on the help of political advisors since the Thatcher era, when big and sometimes controversial projects had to overcome internal and external resistance. Their influence then grew and increased during the New Labour era. For ministers keen to ‘drive through’ radical change, and to be seen to be doing so, the kinds of checks and balances typical of civil service impartiality started to be seen as an obstacle to the implementation of government policy. Ministers wanted Spads to help overcome resistance and communicate the programmes aggressively through the media.
In This essay I will look at what is new about New Labour in regard to
It is well known that the British political system is one of the oldest political systems in the world. Obviously, it was formed within the time. The United Kingdom of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the constitutional monarchy, providing stability, continuity and national focus. The monarch is the head of state, but only Parliament has the right to create and undertake the legislation. The basis of the United Kingdom’s political system is a parliamentary democracy. Therefore, people think the role of the Queen as worthless and mainly unnecessarily demanding for funding, but is it like that?