Research Catalog

Left in the wilderness : the political economy of British democratic socialism since 1979

Title
Left in the wilderness : the political economy of British democratic socialism since 1979 / Noel Thompson.
Author
Thompson, Noel W., 1951-
Publication
Chesham : Acumen, 2002.

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TextUse in library HX244 .T46 2002Off-site

Details

Description
viii, 312 pages; 24 cm
Summary
The two decades following 1979 saw unprecedented challenges to socialism, which have threatened to strip it of its social constituency, destroy its ideological foundations and render it defunct. In this assessment of the socialist project, Noel Thompson examines the state of socialist political economy in Britain and parts of Europe and charts how its constituent strands have been shaped between 1979 and the beginning of the 21st century. Some of the most salient developments covered include: the ascendancy of the New Right and its capacity to win substantial support from the working class; the fundamental change in the nature, composition and aspirations of that class; the persistence of mass unemployment and the collapse of the Keynesian consensus; and globalization, regionalization and the consequent circumscription of national economic management. The author analyzes how the socialist project has reacted to, and evolved in the light of, these challenges and what its future might be. His conclusions are pessimistic. He argues that the political economy of democratic socialism is theoretically exhausted and that the Left in Britain has entered an ideological wilderness from which there seems little prospect of return. Radical stakeholderism in its Huttonian rendition was its last serious fling of the ideological dice and the capitalism it now confronts, or in the case of New Labour seeks to accommodate, leaves little theoretical or prescriptive room for socialist advance or manoeuvre.
Alternative Title
Political economy of British democratic socialism since 1979
Subjects
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-305) and index.
ISBN
  • 1902683536
  • 9781902683539
  • 1902683544
  • 9781902683546
LCCN
2003386673
OCLC
  • ocm49638939
  • 49638939
  • SCSB-14693752
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library