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Recent years have seen the rise of anti-politics as a political phenomenon. Beyond this new rejection of the political class there has long existed a deeper challenge to the political itself. Identifying the work of Derrida as 'a politics' and that of Baudrillard as 'transpolitics' this book charts convergences and divergences in their approaches

Cover -- Contents -- List of Boxes, Figures and Tables -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction - From Elite to Third Way Democracy? -- Part I: Understanding Constitutional Continuity and Change -- 2 Constitutional Doctrine and Revisionism in the Labour Party -- Introduction -- Constitutional Doctrine and Political Tradition -- Constitutional Revisionism in the Labour Party -- Constitutional Doctrine in the Thatcher Years: the 'Hattersley Rule' -- Constitutional Revisionism in the Thatcher Years: Challenging the 'Hattersley Rule' -- In Conclusion: Labour's History of Constitutional Satisfaction -- 3 The Rise of the Competition State -- Introduction -- Constitutional Crisis -- New Labour and the Rise of the Competition State -- In Conclusion: Globalization and the Competition State as Paradoxes -- 4 The New Constitutionalism -- Introduction -- Constitutional Revisionism -- The Reform Programme: A New Politics? -- Delivering Constitutional Reform -- In Conclusion: Blair and the Constitution - The Sorcerer's Apprentice? -- Part II: Case Studies in Constitutional Continuity and Change -- 5 Electoral Reform and the Clammy Hands of Centralism -- Introduction -- Electoral Systems and Liberal Democratic Theory -- Snap Shots From Labour History -- Electoral Reform and New Labour -- In Conclusion: the 'Clammy Hands of Centralism' -- 6 Modernizing Parliament - Reforming the House of Lords -- Introduction -- Lessons From History -- New Labour and the Lords, 1997-99 -- The Two-Stage Reform Process -- The Case for Joined-Up Constitutionalism -- In Conclusion: The Last Citadel? -- 7 Bringing Rights Home -- Introduction -- The Labour Party and Citizenship -- Social Citizenship and the Post-War Settlement -- The Individual and the State under Post-War Labour Governments -- The Individual and the State under the New Conservatives, 1979-97 -- Labour in Opposition.

MANY EXPONENTS OF LIBERALISM IN CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THEORY CLAIM THAT "PUBLIC JUSTIFICATION" IS THE CENTRAL IDEA OF LIBERAL POLITICAL BELIEF. THIS PAPER CHALLENGES THIS CONTENTION, FIRST BY HIGHLIGHTING SOME OF THE MANY MEMBERS OF THE LIBERAL IDEOLOGICAL TRADITION WHICH DO NOT SHARE THIS CHARACTERISTIC AND, SECOND, BY ARGUING THAT RAWLSIAN POLITICAL LIBERALISM CANNOT COHERENTLY SUSTAIN ITS OWN PROFESSED COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC JUSTIFICATION. THIS POINTS TO SERIOUS STRUCTURAL FLAWS IN THE CONCEPT OF PUBLIC-JUSTIFICATORY LIBERALISM. THE ARTICLE VENTURES A PARTIAL EXPLANATION FOR WHY LIBERAL POLITICAL THEORISTS HAVE ATTEMPTED TO REDEFINE LIBERALISM IN PUBLIC-JUSTIFICATORY TERMS, BUT CONTENDS THAT THEY HAVE YET TO CONVINCE THAT THEIR VERSION OF IDEOLOGY IS A TENABLE AND DESIRABLE SUBSTITUTE FOR THOSE THEY SEEK TO DISPLACE. LIBERALISM IS BETTER SERVED BY POSITING THE PUBLIC JUSTIFICATION OF ITS PRINCIPLES AS ONE OF THE NUMEROUS ETHICAL GOALS OF THE IDEAL STATE IT PURSUES, RATHER THAN THE PRECONDITION OF ANY LEGITIMATE POLITICAL ACTION TAKEN IN ITS NAME.