Tony Blair Case Study

Tony Blair is a British Labour Party leader who served as United Kingdom’s prime minister from 1997 to 2007. During his first term, Blair seemed uninterested in foreign affairs for the most part, focusing mainly on domestic issues. He described his philosophy of government as the “Third Way”, a policy most often described as an endeavor to discover a form of progressive politics which is different than both leftist and rightist conservatism. He claimed that his policies were designed to help citizens cope with globalization and to enable social democracy to respond to worldwide market economy challenges. Just like one of his predecessors, Margaret Thatcher, he distrusted the civil service, and enforced policies which meant that all policy announcements would have to be cleared with 10 Downing Street before being made public. He also organized referenda that created devolved assemblies in Wales and Scotland, and developed a joint committee to coordinate policies with the Liberal Democrats (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). Along with the devolution in Scotland and Wales, Blair’s tenure also saw progress in the Northern Ireland peace

However, his domestic policies are most often viewed as incoherent and short-termed, as it is believed that he failed to deliver more concrete solutions for other important issues that were starting to rise throughout the country, such as rising crime and drug use. Furthermore, while the economy growth was uninterrupted, low productivity and growing personal and state debts plagued the economy. Blair was also criticized for his decision to allow millions of low-skilled migrant workers into the country in the wake of the country losing a large part of its manufacturing base (Encyclopedia Britannica,