On the Back Cover
This book provides a critical overview of the changing Labour Party in postwar Britain. Adopting a thematic approach within a structured, chronological framework, the book revolves around one central question: what has the Party been about and what specific objectives has it striven to realize? The author examines the so-called transformation from "Old Labour" to "New Labour," and not only identifies the key stages in its evolution, but highlights, too, the major determinants of the change.
The author focuses on the key areas of debate which illustrate Labour's unfolding aims and its responses to a range of pressures and constraints, namely economic policy, industrial policy, industrial relations and employment policy, and the nature of the welfare state. It is through discussion of these issues that the author investigates the most significant influences behind Labour's organizational structure, rules and policy-making procedures; its distribution of power; its ethos and conventions; its electoral performance, and the evolving social, economic and political environment of postwar Britain.
Setting the dynamics of the Party within the context of dominant theories of party political change, the book also provides a significant contribution to debates on the nature of postwar British politics, useful for all students of contemporary history and political science.
