The Long Search For a Third Way The British Labour Party and the Italian Left Since 1945

by Favretto, Ilaria

• ISBN13: 9780333977149
• ISBN10: 0333977149
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-02-22
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Ilaria Favretto presents a detailed study which traces the origins of the Third Way by comparing the European Left's contemporary neo-revisionism with past revisionist attempts. Focusing its analysis on the British Labour Party and the Italian Left, this book provides new interpretations and insights into the histories of both parties.

Author Biography

Ilaria Favretto is Senior Research Fellow, European Research Centre, Kingston University, London.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
List of Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	1	(16)
Part I The `Golden Years' of Capitalism and the Foundations of Revisionism
Rethinking Socialism	17	(28)
`Croslandism' and the rise of Keynesian socialism	17	(7)
1956: the rediscovery of an `Italian' road to socialism	24	(2)
The end of the Italian `anomaly'	26	(3)
The cultural reawakening of the PSI	29	(6)
A new road to socialism: the autonomist group's ascendancy	35	(3)
Wilsonism and the revival of technocratic socialism	38	(1)
The 1960s, the stagnant society and the rise of the centre-left technocratic group	39	(3)
The centre-right revisionists' hegemony on the wane	42	(3)
Structural Reforms and the `Socialist' Management of Capitalism	45	(40)
The revival of the `Third Way'	45	(1)
Automation and the new case for socialism	46	(4)
Socialists and modernisation	50	(4)
Towards a government-oriented, pragmatic, `technocratic' Left	54	(4)
Public ownership gets reinvented	58	(6)
The revival of planning	64	(7)
Towards a `catch-all' party	71	(14)
Part II The End of Social Capitalism: From Old to New Revisionism
The Crisis of Social-Democratic Politics	85	(24)
Back in power: the `socialist' management of crisis	85	(24)
Socialism in retreat	98	(6)
The rise of neo-revisionism	104	(5)
Shaping a `Post-Fordist' Third Way	109	(46)
The 1990s: the resurgence of the Left	109	(3)
The revival of ethical socialism	112	(6)
Towards `radical' politics	118	(4)
Towards a post-materialist agenda	122	(5)
The new modernisers	127	(4)
The `new global social question'	131	(4)
A new `European' road to socialism	135	(2)
Governing globalisation? Supply-side versus distributional socialism	137	(9)
From welfare to workfare	146	(9)
Moving to the Centre: Socialists Get Rid of the Cloth Cap	155	(17)
The decline of the working-class vote	156	(2)
The `middle-classisation' of third way politics	158	(8)
`Selling politics': the ascendancy of spin-doctors	166	(6)
Epilogue	172	(6)
Notes	178	(31)
References	209	(18)
Index	227