Suchergebnisse

Address before the Denison branch, Australian labour party, Oct. 4, 1954.

Generalizing about an org as complex as a pol'al party is, to say the least, hazardous, but the British Labor Party seems more likely to pick its way safely among the pitfalls of the future than the New Zealand party. Settlement of the leadership succession in Britain has cleared the atmosphere, & brought to the top a vigorous, younger man with a clear perception of the problems ahead; the party in New Zealand has yet to make the transition from a leadership which thinks & speaks in terms of the ideas & slogans of the rapidly dwindling old guard which shaped Labor's destinies between 1935 & 1949. There is more vitality in the British trade unions, & they are more unified in their approach to industrial problems; in New Zealand the sharp division between militants & moderates over compulsory arbitration has never been healed. The tradition of democratic control & responsible leadership is more firmly rooted in the British party, & institutionally it is in a better position to resist oligarchical tendencies. Finally, in rethinking its program the British party is able & willing to draw upon rich intellectual resources for ideas. IPSA.

Compares the development of the British & Norwegian Labour Parties' European Community/European Union (EC/EU) policies in the 1980s & 1990s to argue against the notion that economic globalization inherently constrains social democratic policies within individual states. It is noted that in the 1970s & early 1980s, both of these parties were militantly against membership in the EU, but, according to the globalization thesis, they should have recognized the new international economic climate & embraced a pro-EC/EU position in the later 1980s. It is found, however, that while the British Labour Party did adopt such a position, the Norwegian Labour Party continued to be against the EC/EU. It is argued that this difference can be traced to internal dynamics within each state. In GB, there is a weak institutional context for social democratic policies, while in Norway such policies are embedded in core national institutions. Based on this historical review, it is contended that the international context is secondary in determining the policies of particular national parties. 2 Figures. D. M. Smith

AbstractThe 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.