Synopsis
This volume is the first systematic study of the early performance of New Labour in power. It brings together the first results of a coordinated research initiative, charting the developing relationship between election promise and government policy across the whole sweep of New Labour's manifesto agenda.
Booknews
When Tony Blair's Labour party won the British parliamentary elections in 1997, ending nearly two decades of conservative rule, some saw it as a decisive shift in British politics. Produced by the entire Department of Government at the University of Manchester, these 20 essays were written to ask one question in a number of different policy areas: What were Labour's promises preceding the election and have they succeeded in achieving them? The contributors were asked to keep the material understandable to the reasonably well-informed reader and cover such policy areas as relations with the United States and the European Community, the question of Northern Ireland, constitutional issues, economic policy, industrial and employment policy, the environment, the expansion of neoliberalism, education policy, welfare reform, criminal justice, media and the arts, international development, and national defense. Distributed by Palgrave. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)