Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T13:42:51.811Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Blue and Purple Labour Challenges to the Welfare State: How should ‘Statist’ Social Democrats respond?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2014

Matt Beech  and
Robert M. Page
Matt Beech
Affiliation:
School of Politics, Philosophy and International Studies, University of Hull E-mail: [email protected]
Robert M. Page
Affiliation:
School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores two influential strands of thinking about the welfare state, Blue Labour and Purple Labour, that have emerged following New Labour's defeat at the 2010 General Election. It is argued that although both of these new approaches raise some important issues about the relational and associational dimensions of social welfare as well as diversity and pluralism, those committed to universal and egalitarian goals should not abandon the ‘Statist’ Social Democratic approach to the welfare state.

Keywords

Blue LabourPurple Laboursocial democracywelfare State
Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , July 2015 , pp. 341 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abel-Smith, B. and Townsend, P. (1965) The Poor and the Poorest, London: Bell & Sons.Google Scholar
Anttonnen, A., Haikio, L., Stefansson, K. and Sipila, J. (2012) ‘Universalism and the challenge of diversity’, in Anttonnen, A., Haikio, L. and Stefansson, K. (eds.), Welfare State, Universalism and Diversity, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 1–15.Google Scholar
Bale, T. (2013) ‘Concede and move on? One Nation Labour and the welfare state’, The Political Quarterly, 84, 1, 342–52.Google Scholar
BBC (2004) ‘North East votes “no” to assembly’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3984387.stm [accessed 08.11.2012].Google Scholar
Beech, M. and Hickson, K. (2014) ‘Blue or purple? Reflections on the future of the Labour Party’, Political Studies Review, 12, 1, 75–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beresford, P. (2008) ‘Whose personalisation?, Soundings, 40, Winter, 8–17.Google Scholar
Beveridge, W. (1942) Social Insurance and Allied Services, cmnd 6404, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Bevir, M. (2011) The Making of British Socialism, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Black, L. (2003a) The Political Culture of the Left in Affluent Britain 1951–64, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Black, L. (2003b) ‘What kind of people are you? Labour, the people and the “new political history”’, in Callaghan, J., Fielding, S. and Ludlam, S. (eds.), Interpreting the Labour Party, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 23–38.Google Scholar
Blair, T. (1998) The Third Way, Fabian pamphlet No. 588, London: Fabian Society.Google Scholar
Blond, P. (2010) Red Tory, London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Bogdanor, V. (2012) ‘Half-echoes of the past’, New Statesman, 28 September.Google Scholar
Brandal, N., Bratberg, Ø. and Thorsen, D. E. (2013) The Nordic Model of Social Democracy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Brett, W. (2012) ‘Anti-politics and what the left can do about it’, Renewal, 20, 2/3, 69–74.Google Scholar
Brown, G. (2003) ‘State and market: towards a public interest test’, The Political Quarterly, 74, 3, 266–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, J. R. (1973) Family Doctors and Public Policy, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Clarke, N. and Cochrane, A. (2013) ‘Geographies and politics of localism: the localism of the United Kingdom's coalition government’, Political Geography, 34, 10–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coates, K and Silburn, R. (1970) Poverty: The Forgotten Englishmen, Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Cockett, R. (1995) Thinking the Unthinkable, London: Fontana.Google Scholar
Cole, G. D. H. (1917) Self-Government in Industry, London: George Bell & Sons.Google Scholar
Cole, G. D. H. (1920a) Guild Socialism Re-stated, London: L. Parsons.Google Scholar
Cole, G. D. H. (1920b) Chaos and Order in Industry, New York: F. A. Stokes.Google Scholar
Cooke, G. (2011) ‘New and blue’, in Glasman, M., Rutherford, J., Stears, M. and White, S. (eds.), The Labour Tradition and the Politics of Paradox, London: The Oxford London Seminars, 133–9, http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/ebooks/labour_tradition_politics_paradox.html.Google Scholar
Corrigan, P. and Leonard, P. (1978) Social Work Under Capitalism: A Marxist Approach, London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Cottam, H. (2009) ‘Public service reform, the individual and the state’, Soundings, 42, Summer, 79–89.Google Scholar
Cottam, H. (2011) ‘Relational welfare’, Soundings, 48, Summer, 134–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crosland, C. A. R. (1956) The Future of Socialism, London: Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar
Crouch, C. (2011) The Strange Non-Death of Neoliberalism, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Darlington, R. (2010) Open Left: Why Voters Left Labour?, London: Open Left/Demos.Google Scholar
Davies, J. S. (2008) ‘Double-devolution or double-dealing? The local government white paper and the Lyons review’, Local Government Studies, 34, 1, 3–22.Google Scholar
Davis, R. (2011) Tangled Up in Blue, London: Ruskin.Google Scholar
Davis, R. (2012) ‘Shades of blue’, in Denham, J. (ed.), The Shape of Things to Come, London: Fabian Society, 85–93.Google Scholar
Deacon, A. (2002) Perspectives on Welfare, Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Denham, A. and Garnett, M. (1998) British Think-Tanks and the Climate of Opinion, London: UCL Press.Google Scholar
Department of Health and Social Security (1976) Priorities for Health and Personal Social Services, London: DHSS.Google Scholar
Derbyshire, J. (2013) ‘Lost in thought?’, Prospect, September, 34–9.Google Scholar
Evans, M., Marsh, D. and Stoker, G. (2013) ‘Introduction: understanding localism’, Policy Studies, 34, 4, 401–7.Google Scholar
Farrell, S. and Hay, C. (eds.) (2014) The Legacy of Thatcherism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Faucher-King, F. and Le Gales, P. (2010) The New Labour Experiment: Change and Reform Under Blair and Brown, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Fielding, S., Thompson, P. and Tiratsoo, N. (eds.) (1995) ‘England Arise!’ The Labour Party and Popular Politics in 1940s Britain, Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Finlayson, A. (2011) ‘Making sense of Maurice Glasman’, Renewal, 19, 2, 18–24.Google Scholar
Finlayson, G. (1994) Citizen, State and Social Welfare in Britain, 1830–1990, Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Foley, J. and Ramand, P. (2014) Yes. The Radical Case for Scottish Independence, London: Pluto.Google Scholar
Francis, M, (1997) Ideas and Policies Under Labour 1945–51, Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Fusco, A. (2014) ‘After the referendum’, Renewal, 22, 1–2, 38–46.Google Scholar
Gaffney, J. and Lahel, A. (2013) ‘The morphology of the Labour Party's One Nation narrative: story, plot and authorship’, The Political Quarterly, 41, 3, 330–41.Google Scholar
Gamble, A. and Wright, A. (1999) The New Social Democracy, Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
George, V. (1973) Social Security and Society, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1994) Beyond Left and Right, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1998) The Third Way, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (2000) The Third Way and Its Critics, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, N. (1979) Class, Capital and Social Policy, London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Glasman, M. (2010) ‘Labour as a radical tradition’, Soundings, 46, Winter, 6–17.Google Scholar
Glasman, M. (2011) ‘Blue Labour’, Analysis, BBC Radio 4, 21 March.Google Scholar
Glasman, M. (2013) ‘Relationships, institutions, action: a relation approach to poverty and politics’, in Derbyshire, J. (ed.), Poverty in the UK: Can It be Eradicated?, London: Prospect Publishing, 30–5.Google Scholar
Glasman, M., Rutherford, J., Stears, M. and White, S. (eds.) (2011) The Labour Tradition and the Politics of Paradox, London: The Oxford–London Seminars, http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/ebooks/labour_tradition_politics_paradox.html.Google Scholar
Goodhart, D. (2013) The British Dream, London: Atlantic Books.Google Scholar
Griffiths, J. (1969) Pages from Memory, London: Dent.Google Scholar
Griffiths, S., Foley, B. and Prendergrast, J. (2009) Assertive Citizens, London: Social Market Foundation.Google Scholar
Hassan, G. (2014) ‘Whose Britain is it anyway? The blindsides of British Labour and the left’, Renewal, 22, 1–2, 24–37.Google Scholar
Hattersley, R. and Hickson, K. (2011) ‘In praise of social democracy’, The Political Quarterly, 83, 1, 5–12.Google Scholar
Hattersley, R. and Hickson, K. (eds.) (2013) The Socialist Way, London: I. B.Tauris.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. von (1944) The Road to Serfdom, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hickson, K. (2013) ‘The localist turn in British politics and its critics’, Policy Studies, 34, 4, 408–21.Google Scholar
Hills, J. and Stewart, K. (eds.) (2005) A More Equal Society? New Labour, Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion, Bristol: The Policy Press.Google Scholar
HM Government (2010) The Coalition: Our Programme for Government, London: HM Government.Google Scholar
Holtham, G. (1999) ‘Ownership and social democracy’, in Gamble, A. and Wright, T. (eds.), The New Social Democracy, Oxford: Blackwell, 53–68.Google Scholar
Jackson, B. (2014) ‘The break-up of Britain?’, Renewal, 22, 1–2, 15–23.Google Scholar
Jacobs, K. and Manzi, T. (2012) ‘New localism, old retrenchment: the “Big Society”, housing reform and the politics of welfare reform’, Housing, Theory and Society, 30, 1, 29–45.Google Scholar
Jobson, R. (2014) ‘Blue Labour and nostalgia: the politics of tradition’, Renewal, 22, 1–2, 102–17.Google Scholar
Jordan, B. (1973) Paupers, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Joseph, K. and Sumption, J. (1979) Equality, London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Jowell, T. (2011) ‘The authors of their own lives: stronger communities and the relational state’, in Philpot, R. (ed.), The Purple Book: A Progressive Future for Labour, London: Biteback Publishing, 183–99.Google Scholar
Joyce, R. and Sibieta, L. (2013) ‘An assessment of Labour's record on income inequality and poverty’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 29, 1, 178–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenny, M. (2014) The Politics of English Nationhood, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kincaid, J. (1975) Poverty and Equality in Britain (revised edition), Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Laski, H. (1925) A Grammar of Politics, London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Lawrence, J. (2013) ‘Blue Labour, One Nation Labour, and the Lessons of History’, Renewal, 21, 2/3, 6–13.Google Scholar
Lees, D. S. (1961) Health through Choice, London: Institute of Economic Affairs.Google Scholar
Le Grand, J. (1982) The Strategy of Equality, London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Le Grand, J. (2003) Motivation, Agency and Public Policy: Of Knights and Knaves, Pawns and Queens, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Grand, J. (2007) The Other Invisible Hand, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lodge, G. and Muir, R. (2011) ‘Localism under New Labour’, in Diamond, P., and Kenny, M. (eds.), Reassessing New Labour, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 96–107.Google Scholar
Lowndes, V. and Sullivan, H. (2004) ‘Like a horse and carriage or a fish on a bicycle: how well do local partnerships and public participation go together?’, Local Government Studies, 30, 1, 51–73.Google Scholar
Mandelson, P. (2011) ‘An effective state, not a big state: forging a national strategy’, in Philpot, R. (ed.), The Purple Book: A Progressive Future for Labour, London: Biteback. Publishing, 32–44.Google Scholar
Marquand, D. (2014) ‘United States of Britain?’, Prospect, June, 24–31.Google Scholar
Marsh, A. (2012) ‘Is it time to put the dream of elected mayors to bed?’, Policy and Politics, 40, 4, 607–11.Google Scholar
Marshall, T. H. (1950) Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Martell, L. (2013) ‘Social democracy after the crisis’, Renewal, 21, 4, 31–8.Google Scholar
Meacher, M. (2013) The State We Need, London: Biteback.Google Scholar
Meyer, H. (2012) ‘The challenge of European social democracy: communitarianism and cosmopolitanism united’, in Meyer, H. and Rutherford, J. (eds.), The Future of European Social Democracy, London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 152–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muir, R. and Cooke, G. (2012) ‘The possibilities and politics of the relational state’, in Cooke, G. and Muir, R. (eds.), The Relational State, London: IPPR, 3–16.Google Scholar
Mulgan, G. (2010) The Birth of the Relational state, London: The Young Foundation.Google Scholar
Mulgan, G. (2012) ‘Government with the people: the outlines of a relational state’, in Cooke, G. and Muir, R. (eds.), The Relational State, London: IPPR, 20–34.Google Scholar
Nandy, L. and Reed, S. (2014) ‘The reform of public services: the One Nation agenda’, Renewal, 22, 1–2, 76–86.Google Scholar
Norman, J. (2010) The Big Society, Buckingham: University of Buckingham Press.Google Scholar
Park, A., Curtice, J. and Bryson, C. (eds.) (2014) British Social Attitudes 31, London: National Centre for Social Research.Google Scholar
Pascall, G. (1996) Social Policy: A New Feminist Analysis, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Peacock, A. and Wiseman, J. (1964) Education for Democrats: A Case Study of the Financing of Education in a Free Society, London: Institute of Economic Affairs.Google Scholar
Philpot, R. (2011) ‘Introduction: today's choice before labour’, in Philpot, R. (ed.), The Purple Book: A Progressive Future for Labour, London: Biteback Publishing, 1–18.Google Scholar
Player, S. and Leys, C. (2011) The Plot Against the NHS, London: Merlin.Google Scholar
Policy Network (2011) The Quest for a New Governing Purpose, London: Policy Network.Google Scholar
Pollock, A. M. (2004) NHS plc, London: Verso.Google Scholar
Putnam, R. D. (2001) Bowling Alone, New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Reed, S. and Brant, P. (2011) ‘From centralism to localism: building cooperative communities’, in Philpot, R. (ed.), The Purple Book, London: Biteback, 255–69.Google Scholar
Reisman, D. (1977) Richard Titmuss: Welfare and Society, London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Richards, P. (2011) ‘Back to the future: the decentralised tradition and labour's way forward’, in Philpot, R. (ed.), The Purple Book, London: Biteback, 45–60.Google Scholar
Rooksby, E. (2011), ‘Blue Labour and the limits of social democracy’, Renewal, 19, 3/4, 104–17.Google Scholar
Rothstein, B. (2011) ‘Creating a sustainable solidaristic society: a manual’, Social Europe Journal, 6, 22–32.Google Scholar
Rutherford, J. (2010) ‘Labour's good society’, Soundings, 46, Winter, 31–41.Google Scholar
Rutherford, J. (2011) ‘The future is conservative’, in Glasman, M., Rutherford, J., Stears, M. and White, S. (eds.), The Labour Tradition and the Politics of Paradox, London: The Oxford–London Seminars, 88–105, http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/ebooks/labour_tradition_politics_paradox.html.Google Scholar
Rutherford, J. (2013) ‘The first New Left, Blue Labour and English modernity’, Renewal, 21, 1, 9–14.Google Scholar
Seldon, A. F. (1957) Pensions in a Free Society, London: Institute of Economic Affairs.Google Scholar
Sheard, S. (2013) The Passionate Economist: How Brian Abel-Smith Shaped Global Health and Social Welfare, Bristol: The Policy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sivanandan, A. (2013) ‘The market state vs the good society’, Race and Class, 54, 3, 1–9.Google Scholar
Skeffington, A. (1969) People and Planning, Report of the Committee on Public Participation in Planning, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Slack, P. (1995) The English Poor Law, 1531–1782, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Soutphommasane, T. (2012) The Virtuous Citizen: Patriotism in a Multicultural Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stears, M. (2006) Progressives, Pluralism and the Problems of the State, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stears, M. (2011) ‘Blue Labour’, Analysis, BBC Radio 4, 21 March.Google Scholar
Stears, M. (2012) ‘The case for a state that supports relationships, not a relational state’, in Cooke, G. and Muir, R. (eds.), The Relational State, London: IPPR, 36–43.Google Scholar
Stoker, G. (2004) ‘New localism, progressive politics and democracy’, The Political Quarterly, 75, S1, August, 117–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tawney, R. H. (1921) The Acquisitive Society, London: G. Bell & Sons.Google Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2012) A Left Trilemma, London: Policy Network.Google Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2013) The Double Crisis of the Welfare State and What We Can Do About It, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Timmins, N. (2001) The Five Giants, revised edn, London: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Titmuss, R. M. (1970) The Gift Relationship, London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. (1958) ‘A society for people’, in Mackenzie, N. (ed.), Conviction, London: MacGibbon & Kee, 93–120.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. (1979) Poverty in the United Kingdom, Harmondsworth: Penguin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toynbee, P. and Walker, D. (2001) Did Things Get Better?, Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Toynbee, P. and Walker, D. (2005), Better or Worse? Has Labour Delivered?, London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Toynbee, P. and Walker, D. (2011) The Verdict: Did Labour Change Britain for the Better?, London: Granta.Google Scholar
Tullock, G. (1965) The Politics of Bureaucracy, Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press.Google Scholar
White, S. (2011) ‘New Labour and the politics of ownership’, in Diamond, P. and Kenny, M. (eds.), Reassessing New Labour, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, s140–51Google Scholar
Whiteley, P. (2012) Political Participation in Britain, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. (1977) Women and the Welfare State, London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. (2012) Letting Go, Fabian Ideas No. 632, London: Fabian Society.Google Scholar
Wood, S. (2013) ‘Explaining One Nation Labour’, The Political Quarterly, 84, 3, 317–20.Google Scholar
Wright, A. (2010) Where Next? The Challenge for Centre-Left Politics, London: IPPR.Google Scholar