Marcel Wissenburg, G?khan Orhan and Ute Collier
Ashgate
Hardback
254
1999
This book is intended for political scientists and historians. It attempts to fuse a realist conception of Statecraft, an 'interpretavist' interest in symbols and a predictive comparative model of the interaction between ideology and organization. Using Labour?s postwar welfare policy, it shows that we need to break down distinctions between the 'symbolic' and the 'substantial' in politics, that 'cultural (or grid-group) theory' has potential as a way of understanding party political culture, and that welfare policy has played a crucial but self-defeating role in Labour?s efforts to manage itself, win hearts and minds (and elections) and govern competently. It concludes by arguing that New Labour?s attempt to 'rethink' welfare is largely rhetorical if one recalls what Labour did in office rather than promised in opposition. Rather than a serious attempt to confront new social realities the rethink represents a continuation of past practice and a way of signaling the new government?s 'soundness' to the market.
Ashgate
Hardback
254
1999
This book is intended for political scientists and historians. It attempts to fuse a realist conception of Statecraft, an 'interpretavist' interest in symbols and a predictive comparative model of the interaction between ideology and organization. Using Labour?s postwar welfare policy, it shows that we need to break down distinctions between the 'symbolic' and the 'substantial' in politics, that 'cultural (or grid-group) theory' has potential as a way of understanding party political culture, and that welfare policy has played a crucial but self-defeating role in Labour?s efforts to manage itself, win hearts and minds (and elections) and govern competently. It concludes by arguing that New Labour?s attempt to 'rethink' welfare is largely rhetorical if one recalls what Labour did in office rather than promised in opposition. Rather than a serious attempt to confront new social realities the rethink represents a continuation of past practice and a way of signaling the new government?s 'soundness' to the market.