Abstract
One of the key discussions emerging from within the centre and centre-left of British politics is the means of combining a commitment to diversity with the aim of achieving social solidarity. While there has been a populist strand to this debate recently with the contribution of writers such as Goodhart who has argued that diversity specifically undermines the willingness of the majority (white Anglo-Saxons) to pay for collective welfare provision, there has also been recognition of the difficulty of promoting difference and unity from within even the more sympathetic elements of the academic literature. The purpose of this paper is to consider the nature of this dilemma and to propose a tentative solution. In essence we suggest that the problem lies not in creating a fit between the two elements for the sake of making the ‘new’ social democracy work but in rebuilding traditional social democracy.
Highlights
The purpose of this paper is to chart the shift that has occurred, arguably across the „developed‟world from a broadly social democratic polity, to an economic, social and political environment driven by a combination of, for want of more descriptive terms, neo-Liberal and neo-Conservative ideals.While it would be simplistic and inaccurate to say that social democracy has been displaced, it is evident that politics and economics have been at the least „neo-liberalised‟ [1] with serious social and environmental consequences
We maintain that the way in which diversity has been used by New Labour has enabled a reactionary and destructive force to conceal itself in progressive clothing—in this case the sheep is still a sheep to some degree but it facilitates the justice of the wolf
We suggest that rather than claim to have reconfigured social democracy, using off-the-shelf labels such as the Third Way, and harnessing concepts like equality of opportunity and diversity to fuel it, that the UK New Labour government needs to return to the three foundational assumptions of true social democracy
Summary
The purpose of this paper is to chart the shift that has occurred, arguably across the „developed‟. While it would be simplistic and inaccurate to say that social democracy has been displaced, it is evident that politics and economics have been at the least „neo-liberalised‟ [1] with serious social and environmental consequences To illustrate this we have elected to refer to the case of New Labour in Britain and their promotion of equal opportunities and diversity. In this paper we have chosen to focus, in line with the theme of this special issue, on equality of opportunity and diversity These are not the political preserve of New Labour, but they have emerged as key concepts for the furtherance of their „new social democratic‟ agenda
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