New Labour's communitarianisms

This article argues that communitarianism can be analysed on different levels — sociological, ethical and meta—ethical — and along different dimensions — conformist/pluralist, more conditional/less conditional, progressive/conservative, prescriptive/voluntary, moral/socioeconomic and individual/corporate. We argue that New Labour's communitarianism is a response to both neo-liberalism and old social democracy. It is sociological, ethical and universalist rather than particularist on the meta-ethical level. Labour increasingly favours conditional, morally prescriptive, conservative and individual communitarianisms. This is at the expense of less conditional and redistributional socioeconomic, progressive and corporate communitarianisms. It is torn between conformist and pluralist versions of communitarianism. This bias is part of a wider shift in Labour thinking from social democracy to a liberal conservatism which celebrates the dynamic market economy and is socially conservative

Conditional citizens? welfare rights and responsibilities in the late 1990s

In Britain the relationship between welfare rights and responsibilities has undergone change. A new welfare 'consensus' that emphasizes a citizen ship centred on notions of duty rather than rights has been built. This has allowed the state to reduce its role as a provider of welfare and also defend a position in which the welfare rights of some citizens are increas ingly conditional on those individuals meeting compulsory responsibili ties or duties. This concentration on individual responsibility/duty has undermined the welfare rights of some of the poorest members of society. Three levels of debate are considered within the article: academic, pol itical and 'grassroots'. The latter is included in an attempt to allow some 'bottom up' views into what is largely a debate dominated by social sci entists and politicians

Should the provision of home help services be contained?: Validation of the new preventive care policy in Japan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To maintain the sustainability of public long-term care insurance (LTCI) in Japan, a preventive care policy was introduced in 2006 that seeks to promote active improvement in functional status of elderly people who need only light care. This policy promotes the use of day care services to facilitate functional improvement, and contains the use of home help services that provide instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) support. However, the validity of this approach remains to be demonstrated.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Subjects comprised 241 people aged 65 years and over who had recently been certified as being eligible for the lightest eligibility level and had began using either home help or day care services between April 2007 and October 2008 in a suburban city of Tokyo. A retrospective cohort study was conducted ending October 2009 to assess changes in the LTCI eligibility level of these subjects. Cox's proportional hazards model was used to calculate the relative risk of declining in function to eligibility Level 4 among users of the respective services.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Multivariate analysis adjusted for factors related to service use demonstrated that the risk of decline in functional status was lower for users of home help services than for users of day care services (HR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.31-0.98). The same result was obtained when stratified by whether the subject lived with family or not. Furthermore, those who used two or more hours of home help services did not show an increase in risk of decline when compared with those who used less than two hours.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>No evidence was obtained to support the effectiveness of the policy of promoting day care services and containing home help services for those requiring light care.</p

Professionalism and the Millbank Tendency: The Political Sociology of New Labour's employees

This article analyses party employees, one of the most under-researched subjects in the study of British political parties. We draw on a blend of quantitative and qualitative data in order to shed light on the social and political profiles of Labour Party staff, and on the question of their professionalisation. The latter theme is developed through a model derived from the sociology of professions. While a relatively limited proportion of party employees conform to the pure ideal-type of professionalism, a considerably greater number manifest enough of the core characteristics of specialisation, commitment, mobility, autonomy and self-regulation to be reasonably described as 'professionals in pursuit of political outcomes'

From social contract to 'social contrick' : the depoliticisation of economic policy-making under Harold Wilson, 1974–75

The 1974-79 Labour Governments were elected on the basis of an agreement with the TUC promising a redistribution of income and wealth known as the Social Contract. However, the Government immediately began to marginalise these commitments in favour of preferences for incomes policy and public expenditure cuts, which has led the Social Contract to be described as the 'Social Contrick'. These changes were legitimised through a process of depoliticisation, and using an Open Marxist framework and evidence from the National Archives, the paper will show that the Treasury's exchange rate strategy and the need to secure external finance placed issues of confidence at the centre of political debate, allowing the Government to argue there was no alternative to the introduction of incomes policy and the reduction of public expenditure

Higher education and unemployment in Europe : an analysis of the academic subject and national effects

This paper examines the impact of an academic degree and field of study on short and long-term unemployment across Europe (EU15). Labour Force Survey (LFS) data on over half a million individuals are utilised for that purpose. The harmonized LFS classification of level of education and field of study overcomes past problems of comparability across Europe. The study analyses (i) the effect of an academic degree at a European level, (ii) the specific effect of 14 academic subjects and (iii) country specific effects. The results indicate that an academic degree is more effective on reducing the likelihood of short-term than long-term unemployment. This general pattern even though it is observed for most of the academic subjects its levels show significant variation across disciplines and countries

Constructing female entrepreneurship policy in the UK : is the US a relevant benchmark?

Successive UK governments have introduced a range of policy initiatives designed to encourage more women to start new firms. Underpinning these policies has been an explicit ambition for the UK to achieve similar participation rates as those in the US where it is widely reported that women own nearly half the stock of businesses. The data underlying these objectives are critically evaluated and it is argued that the definitions and measures of female enterprise used in the UK and the US restrict meaningful comparisons between the two. It is suggested that the expansion of female entrepreneurship in the US is historically and culturally specific to that country. UK policy goals should reflect the national socioeconomic context, while drawing upon good practice examples from a range of other countries. The paper concludes by discussing the economic and social viability of encouraging more women in the UK to enter self-employment without fully recognising the intensely competitive sectors in which they are often located

Industrial associations as ideational platforms : why Japan resisted American-style shareholder capitalism

Significant wage and treatment differentials between regular workers in long-term employment and precarious non-regular workers have been a major political issue in Japan since the mid-1990s. I argue this phenomenon was caused by Japanese society’s resistance to American neoliberal hegemony. Why has Japan resisted it, and how has the resistance resulted in the rapid increase in the working poor? I contend anti-liberal, anti-free market norms of Japanese society centred on ‘systemic support’ have bolstered resistance to convergence in order to prevent capitalist dominance from severing long-term social ties, such as management-labour cooperation. My broadened definition of systemic support incorporates dominant elites’ support and protection of subordinates in exchange for their loyalty and obedience. This paper will explore reasons for the resistance to convergence by examining an ideational conflict within Japanese elites between the market liberalisation and anti-free market camps, particularly between two major industrial associations, Keidanren and Keizai Doyukai, which have played a key role as ‘ideational platforms’ for Japanese corporate society. Under the Hashimoto (1996-8) and Koizumi (2001-6) administrations, the market liberalisation camp gained influence, but since 2006, both the anti-free market camp and its subordinates (e.g. regular workers) have driven anti-neoliberal backlash

Constitutional Reform in the UK: A Note on the Legacy of the Kilbrandon Commission

The past two decades have seen large shifts in the constitutional landscape of the United Kingdom. This began with the devolution of powers from Westminster to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland under the first Blair government. More recently, the localism agenda advanced by the Coalition and subsequent Conservative governments has sought to further devolve powers to areas within England, and the constitutional integrity of the UK itself was threatened by 2014s Scottish independence referendum and the 2016 referendum vote for the UK to leave the European Union. It is convenient to regard constitutional reform concerned with the dispersal of power through the creation of new executive and legislative bodies as a modern phenomenon. However, the roots of devolution go back much further. Largely forgotten is the work of the Kilbrandon Commission, established to consider the allocation of executive and legislative power within the UK, which reported in 1973 and effectively produced the first substantial proposals for the devolution of power from Westminster. Almost two decades on from the creation of the devolved institutions for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the present moment is as opportune as any to consider the longer-term legacy of the Kilbrandon Commission. This note revisits the major findings and recommendations of Kilbrandon and attempts to consider the extent to which these have been realised in subsequent constitutional reform initiatives. While difficult to quantify its significance, it is nonetheless important to recognise the relevance of the commission’s work for subsequent and unfinished developments within the area of constitutional reform. © 2017, The Author(s)