The party held power for 16 years; from 1945-1979, but the Tories were in power and the party split between the left-wing of the party, represented by Michael Foot and Tony Benn, and the right-wing of the party, represented by Denis Healey, who had said that the party was moving too far towards the left, making it potentially unelectable. Foot and Benn felt that making the party more Socialist was a way to tackle to New Right and Thatcherism, but the electorate did not feel the same way. After Michael Foot’s resignation, Neil Kinnock replaced him; he moved the party more towards the centre, as he saw that traditional Socialist polices were no longer suitable for the changing British society; he felt that the party needed a new direction, but one which did not abandon completely the traditional values. [Kinnock felt it was important to remove extremist groups such as the Militant tendency group within the Labour Party based on policies descended from Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin and Trotsky; so that the Labour Party could win in the general elections, as he, as well as many others, felt that such groups defamed the party.] In order to form this new direction, John Smith and other figures such as Tony Blair got involved and set about creating the Third Way - this change was so great that the party soon became known as New Labour. Since its office in 1997, many have said that the party has shifted to a more New Right position, whilst following the principles of Third Way; they felt that the party was unelectable if it held just old beliefs, thus the Third Way is a mix of Liberalism and social democracy (New Labour provided an alternative to traditional Socialism and the New Right and Thatcherism).
The Third way policies can be contrasted to the Traditional Socialist policies on 8 policy areas. With regards to attitude to Capitalism, the Third Way believe that with Capitalism, there should also be state enforcement of competition and fair trade and in contrast to this, the Socialist belief is that Capitalism should be controlled by the state and that the state should control large industries. On industrial relations, the Third Way believe that though there should be a limited trade union, something solid law should be enforced, which protects workers rights and in a completely different belief, the Socialists believe that trade unions should be very powerful sop that they can protect the workers interests. Welfare state and its services: the Third Way believe that welfare benefits should create incentive but should not be used to redistribute income and on the topic of services, they think that public goods should be provided at a high quality and that the private sector should exist only to improve the efficiency and quality, while on the other hand the Socialist think differently in that they think welfare benefits are needed to redistribute income and that the state should control all welfare services. Economic management is another policy area which, surprisingly, they don’t differ much on: (the New Right think state intervention in the economy should be reduced to a ‘bare minimum’ and that inflation should be controlled) Third Way have similar beliefs to the New Right, but they also feel that its acceptable for the public sector to borrow money for investment in public services and the Socialist believe that there should be extensive interference from the state to keep the problem of unemployment at a low level and that to stimulate the economy, its acceptable for the public sector to borrow money - thus it can be seen that on this area, the Third Way have adopted some New Right policies but also agree on some things of the Socialists.
Law and order: Third Way believe in ‘Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ as said by Blair (an authoritarian attitude combined with the tackling of social causes of crime) and the Socialists believe that to reduce crime, it’s important to focus on mainly the (economic) causes of crime. Thus they are similar in the fact that the feel it’s necessary to pay attention to the causes of crime. European Union: the Socialist are anti-EU as they want to be free in order to protect domestic industries, while the Third Way believe that Britain should remain independent if it remains at the centre of the EU. Foreign policy is one in which both disagree completely as the Socialist believe that Britain should steer clear of getting involved in international affairs while Third Way feel its important for Britain to take a leading role in world affairs. Finally, on the constitution, both feel that there should be reform but the Socialists appear more radical in their demand for reform as they want to destroy inherited privileges, democratise institutions and promote equal rights while Third Way feel its more important to concentrate on the decentralisation of government, have small reform of the Lords and also enforce a Human Rights act. It can be seen that with regards to traditional Socialism and the Third way, there are some similar beliefs, but both mainly differ as it seems that the Third Way has policies with more similarities to the New Right.
Labour policies after 2005: anti-poverty; New Labour has abandoned traditionalist Socialist aim of redistributing income to create equality, but has instead adopted an attack on poverty and has created an anti-poverty programme which targets poor groups in society, economic policy; they have followed the New Right principles and other methods to control public finances and to prevent excessive government borrowing, welfare services; divert large amounts of public expenditure to public services to increase the standards, education; central theme- increase the equality of opportunity in education thus it can reduce poverty etc, law and order; based on Blair’s ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ – adopting a more authoritarian attitude, welfare benefits; to raise the living standards of poor pensioner, those on low wages etc thus it gives them incentive to work if they are able to and permanently takes them out of poverty, constitutional reform; devolution, reform of the Lords and greater independence of the judiciary, Europe; pro-European and committed to Reform suggested by the EU in an attempt to make it more democratic, defence and foreign policy; more involved in international issues and an active pursuit into British national interest.
If we think clearly, we can see that three Labour leaders turned the party around: Kinnock dumped the extreme policies, Smith made party electable and Blair gave the party a vision/new start. Kinnock had recognised a need to adjust party and policy to more individualist society: ‘Meet the Challenge, Make the Change’ and he moved the party towards the centre-left. Smith advanced the process of modernisation of the party – One Member One Vote achieved and Blair, he brought change. The emergence of the ‘New Labour’ title confirmed a fresh start and a Social democratic transformation. The new Clause 4 of 1995, symbolised transformation – we effectively abandoned centralised planning and public ownership. He recognised that the world had altered and that party must alter too if it was to regain credibility and win elections. The party changed due to four successive defeats, which increased desperation and accelerated the process of modernisation. Democratic socialism had been discredited and was rejected repeatedly at the polls. Labour responded by shifting from democratic Socialism to Social democracy; created a less selfish society without huge increase in government spending. This could all be seen as bringing socialism up to date, as the values haven’t changed (social justice, equality of opportunity, community, partnership, rights), its just the policies that acknowledge society has changed. Overall, it feels like the current Labour party has changed many of its policies and has adapted them so that the party can be more electable, which has proven to work, however, I do feel that they basic/core principles of their old Socialist beliefs are still there, so Labour can still be called a Socialist party, but a watered-down version.