Employment Relationships as the Centrepiece of a New Labour Policy Paradigm

2002 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham S. Lowe
Keyword(s):  
New Labour ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Policy Paradigm ◽  
Labour Policy

Discursive Democracy and New Labour: Five Ways in Which Decision-Makers Manage Citizen Agendas in Public Participation Initiatives

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Williams
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Labour Policy ◽  
The Government

New Labour's conceptualisation of public participation in local government creates a tension in public participation practice. Government legislation and guidance require local authorities to develop and provide citizen-centred services, engage the public in policy-making and respond to the public's views. Seen in this light, New Labour policy draws from radical democratic discourse. However, local authority staff are also expected to act in accordance with the direction set by their line managers, the Council and the government and to inform, engage and persuade the public of the benefit of their authority's policies. In this respect, New Labour policy draws from the discursive model of civil society, conceptualising public participation as a method for engendering civil ownership of the formal structures of representative democracy. Tension is likely to arise when the ideas, opinions and values of the local authority differ from those expressed by the participating public. This paper uses a local ‘public participation’ initiative to investigate how the tension is managed in practice. The study shows how decision-makers dealt with the tension by using participatory initiatives to supply information, understand the views of the public and encourage public support around pre-existing organisational agendas. Problems occurred when citizens introduced new agendas by breaking or manipulating the rules of participation. Decision-makers responded by using a number of distinctive methods for managing citizens’ agendas, some of which were accompanied by strategies for minimising the injury done to citizens’ motivations for further participation. The paper concludes that New Labour policy fails to deal with the tensions between the radical and discursive models of participation and in the final analysis draws mainly from the discursive model of participation. Furthermore, whilst New Labour policy promotes dialogue between the public and local authority, it does not empower local authority staff to achieve the goal of citizen-centred policy-making.

scholarly journals New Labour Ambiguity, or Neo-liberal Consistency? The Debate About Racial Inequality in Employment and the Use of Contract Compliance

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL ORTON ◽  
PETER RATCLIFFE
Keyword(s):  
Policy Development ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Contract Compliance ◽  
Minority Ethnic Groups ◽  
Labour Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
Key Barrier ◽  
The Uk

In 2003 the UK government set an objective that in ten years' time Britain's minority ethnic groups should not face disproportionate barriers in the labour market. A key ‘barrier’ is discrimination by employers. This article examines one potential way forward: the use of contract compliance. First, the article presents findings from the authors' study of an innovative use of contract compliance by a group of local authorities in the West Midlands. If contract compliance can be made to work and New Labour is committed to addressing racial inequality in employment, this suggests that contract compliance is an approach that the government should be seeking to develop. The second part of the article therefore considers New Labour's stance on contract compliance, which can be seen to be highly ambiguous. It is argued that if contract compliance is located within the broader context of New Labour policy development, what is apparent is that the professed aspiration for social change is compromised by a dominant commitment to the maintenance of neo-liberal economic policies. The conclusion is that it is likely that only limited progress will be made in achieving racial equality in employment.

The economics of New Labour: policy and performance

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 805-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kitson ◽  
F. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
New Labour ◽  
Labour Policy ◽  
And Performance

scholarly journals Education Governance in the United Kingdom: The Modernisation Project

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ozga
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Social Capital Theory ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Education Governance ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Labour Policy

This article considers the modernisation of education governance as implemented by the New Labour governments of the United Kingdom since 1997. The discussion focuses on the apparent contradiction between those elements of modernisation that require the measurement and management of performance; and those that promote greater fairness and responsiveness. It is argued that tensions between these elements of policy are resolved by New Labour policy makers through the use of ideas derived from social capital theory. Modernisation uses these ideas in pursuit of a transformation of politics that enhances governability by making beliefs and feelings quantifiable, and by equating social relations with capital accumulation. The article concludes with a consideration of the problems encountered in the operationalisation of the modernisation project in the United Kingdom's Education Action Zones, where business was encouraged to play a major role in building new networks and social relations.

New US labour policy will ripple through tech industry

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Labour Policy

Headline UNITED STATES: New labour law will up-end tech firms

Jobs look like Hungarian governing party success story

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Work Force ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Success Story ◽  
Labour Policy

More Hungarians have been brought into the work force but the reserves are nearly used up requiring a new labour policy

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document