Reinventing the Left

This volume is the product of a remarkable group of authors - academics, journalists and politicians. The authors offer a radical reappraisal of the future of Left political theory and policy in the context of the fundamental changes that society has undergone over the last two or more decades. Many new ideas and concepts are set out. Communism is dead, traditional social democracy is weak, and neo-liberalism has failed. Can the Left fill the vacuum? The essays in this book argue that there is a viable future for left-of-center politics, but that it requires a radical break with the assumptions of the past. The deepening globalization of production, the break-up of working-class communities, and the limitations of the centralized state demand new thinking about economic renewal and social reform. Autonomy must supplement equality as the leading value of the Left; inequalities of power must be corrected outside the workplace as well as within it; markets must be directed and not abolished; and radical democracy must be established as an end in itself. In this book Anthony Giddens and Perry Anderson debate social change in industralized societies; Gordon Brown and Anne Phillips address the meaning and value of community; Michel Rocard and Will Hutton discuss alternative economic strategies; Gosta Esping-Andersen and Frances Fox Piven propose new ideas for the welfare state; and David Marquand and Jos de Beus set out competing visions for the European Union. In this important new book a remarkable group of authors - academics, journalists and politicians - offer a radical reappraisal of the future of Left political theory and policy in the context of recent changes in society. Compiled by the Institute for Public Policy Research, the volume includes contributons by Anthony Giddens, Perry Anderson, Gordon Brown, Anne Phillips, Michel Rocart, David Marquand and Will Hutton among others and sets out many new ideas and concepts.