IN BRITISH POLITICS TODAY THE CONCEPTS OF A "MODERATE SOCIALIST" IS OFTEN CONFUSED WITH THAT OF A SOCIALIST WHO IS MODERATE. "MODERATE SOCIALIST" SHOULD NOT PROPERLY REFER TO THE MIDDLE OF THE NATIONAL POLITICAL SPECTRUM, BUT TO ANY POINT OF THE SOCIALIST SPECTRUM. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, AND FRATERNITY ARE THE BASIC SOCIALIST VALUES, WHICH ARE PRECISELY DEFINED AND SHOWN TO BE DEPENDENT ON EACH OTHER.
THE ARGUMENT THAT THERE WERE WAYS IN WHICHL MAIN BRITISH POLITICAL PARTIES SHOULD BE SUBSIDIZED SINCE THEIR TRADITIONAL-SOURCES OF FINANCE ARE RAPIDLY DIMINISHING IS DISCUSSED, POINTING OUT THAT THE PROBLEM IS A MUCH WIDER LONE THAN FINANCE, INVOLVING ALSO AN EXTREME DISPROPORTIONALITY BETWEEN VOTES AND SEATS AND A DIMINISHING MEMBERSHIP OF THE PARTIES IMPAIRING DEMOCRATIC CONTROL.
In: New community: European journal on migration and ethnic relations ; the journal of the European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations, Band 21, Heft 2, S. 167-182
Considers the development and present state of Britain's civil liberties. Argues that the system is entering its last decades; that the erosion of civil liberties is exciting such opposition that it can not be long before their protection is enshrined in a constitutional form. (RSM)
Contemplates the sheer scale of the task facing the Labour Party if it wishes to be a party of government again. Seeks to resolve one of the Labour Party's current dilemmas with the tough advice that it will need both major changes of policy and an electoral pact if it is to recover. (AM)
Socialist literature in the 1950's is clearly characterized by fragmentation, both in source & substance, & by the replacement of the primacy of economics by sociol as the center of the socialist imagination. Crosland's THE FUTURE OF SOCIALISM is the most comprehensive work of the 1950's & is an extraordinarily able analysis, synthesizing both econ & soc factors, of the broad changes in British society since the wars; but his work falls short, by his own standards, of the claims of a socialist literature. By contrast, Strachey's CONTEMPORARY CAPITALISM has the classic look of something built to last; but socialist thought will, perhaps, be far more influenced by Pelling's & Poirier's histories of the Labour Party than by such works of comprehension, or by anthologies such as the NEW FASHION ESSAYS. The New Left book OUT OF APATHY is all denunciation & sectarian polemic & represents a complete rejection of pol'al values. British socialism must be inherently pluralistic, & good use can be made of any form of writing which is prepared to recognize that fact. AA- IPSA.
