Political (Di)visions: The Third Way Flashcards
Who was Anthony Charles Lynton Blair? (2)
◼ Leader of the Labour Party 1994-2007
◼ UK’s Prime Minister 1997-2007
What happened during Blair’s leadership? (7)
◼ Under his leadership, the party used the phrase “New Labour” to distinguish it between previous Labour policies.
◼ Highly skilled rhetorician, he was able to exploit Diana’s death to have more popularity and augment consent
◼ Introduction of the minimum wage
◼ Devolution, establishing of the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
◼ 1998 Good Friday Agreement
◼ “Special Relationship with the USA”
◼ 2001-2003 Support of the US in the war of terror (Invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq)
What’s the point of the “New” Labour? (3)
◼ Strong relationship between rhetoric and substance.
The name itself reveals attention for rhetoric: new vs. old Labour
◼ Style and substance become inseparable as a result of incorporating marketing techniques, (focus groups and market research) in the political process.
◼ “Rhetoric has to go hand in hand with political substance to win the trust of the electorate” (Philip Gould)
In the opening of his speech Blair argues in favour of a policy based on the combination of two opposite ideals: which ideals?
Social justice and new economy
Which words does Blair use to synthesise them in a sort of slogan?
Fairness and enterprise
How does Blair justify the need for a change in the left?
He maintains that globalization and the global economy are unchangeable facts of life
List at least five different aspects of life which Blair think are affected by change.
◼ Economy
◼ Society
◼ Technology
◼ Culture
◼ Art
◼ [+ community identity, families]
What does the expression “conservatives of the left” mean?
Left-wing politicians who protect “vested interests and bureaucracies and old ways of working in the name of social justice and actually causing injustice by failing to adapt”
Who does Blair accuse of being laissez-fair
Conservatives
Laissez-Faire vs Free Mark
Persuasion by problem/solution, analize Blair’s speeches with the problem he found and three solutions.
◼ Problem: change is going to get faster in the next ten years than in the last. So what should our response be?
◼ Solution 1: resist change
Evaluation: and we become conservatives of the left (rejected)
◼ Solution 2: Alternatively the second choice: if we let change just happen… (Laissez-faire: Conservatives)
Evaluation: then we really have become like the right (rejected)
◼ Solution 3: the third way (modernity: New Labour)
Evaluation: to become the champions of change, managing change in a way that overcomes insecurity and liberates people, equipping them to survive and prosper in this new world
How does Blair define the “Third Way”?
“Modernized social democracy”
