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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2014
The Australian Labor Party (ALP) is sometimes taken to have been the real pioneer of many of the policies introduced by New Labour since 1997 under the general rubric of the ‘new social democracy’. This article considers the heritage of the ALP's 13 years in power (and its subsequent 10 years in opposition). The conclusion considers the lessons that may be learnt about the past (and the future) of Labour in the UK.
1 There are very many ways of describing the experience of New Labour and/or of the ‘Third Way’ in Britain. I use ‘the new social democracy’ as the most generic descriptor.Google Scholar
2 Amongst the most influential treatments are M. Bevir, New Labour: A Critique, London, Routledge, 2005; C. Hay, The Political Economy of New Labour, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1999; D. Coates, Prolonged Labour: The Slow Birth of New Labour Britain, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. For an excellent critical survey, see Leggett, W., ‘British Social Democracy Beyond New Labour’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 9: 3 (2007), pp. 346–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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11 There are other potentially similar cases – for example in Spain and New Zealand – though in these examples the defeated parties of reform have now been returned to office.Google Scholar
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