Open left cover 2/17/10 4:20 PM Page 1 Fifteen years after the revision of Clause IV and we mean power over a decade since Labour came to office, the we mean centre-Left needs to revisit fundamental questions about what it stands for and the sort of society it seeks. The twin crisis of the credit crunch and MPs’ power ideas expenses – combined with the forthcoming general election – only make this task more urgent. This collection of essays testifies to the vitality of thinking across the modern Left. It | Cooke James Purnell • Graeme for the future shows that its traditions and values are both rich and relevant to today’s problems. The essays confront the central ideological tensions facing of the left the centre-Left, such as its attitude to equality, political economy, community and identity, and power and democracy. By drawing on a range of Edited by James Purnell perspectives, this collection demonstrates how and Graeme Cooke openness and pluralism can be combined with the confidence that there is much that unites the British centre-Left as we move into the second decade of the new century. Amid the complexity and diversity of the ideas expressed throughout the collection, a simple goal emerges: powerful people in a reciprocal society. This goal embodies the best of Labour’s traditions and can provide a fertile ground for policy, organisation, governance and the long-term political future of the Left. James Purnell is a Labour MP and Director of the Open Left project at Demos. Graeme Cooke is Head of Open Left. ISBN: 978 1 906693 33 6 £10 © Demos 2010 OPEN LEFT Open left cover 2/16/10 9:57 AM Page 2 This collection was produced by Demos’ Open Left Contributors project. Open Left aims to renew the arguments and ideas of the centre-Left. Its goal is to create a space Andrew Gamble is Professor of Politics at the for open debate and new thinking about the kind of University of Cambridge society Britain should be and how to bring it about. This should be based on idealism, pluralism and Maurice Glasman is Director of the faith and radicalism. citizenship programme at London Metropolitan University Find out more at www.openleft.co.uk Ben Jackson is a Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at University College, Oxford University Mike Kenny is Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield David Miller is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Oxford Richard Reeves is Director of Demos and author of John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand Meg Russell is a Reader in British and Comparative Politics and Deputy Director of the Constitution Unit at University College London Marc Stears is a Fellow in Politics at University College, University of Oxford Stuart White is a Lecturer in Politics and Tutorial Fellow at Jesus College, University of Oxford Jonathan Wolff is Professor of Philosophy at University College London Demos is an independent think-tank focused on power and politics. We develop and spread ideas to give people more power over their own lives. Our vision is of a democracy of powerful citizens, with an equal stake in society. Demos has several core research programmes in 2010: Capabilities, Citizenship, Security, Economic Life, Progressive Austerity and Extremism. We also have two political research programmes: the Progressive Conservatism Project and Open Left, investigating the future of the centre-Right and centre-Left. In all our work we bring together people from a wide range of backgrounds to develop ideas that will shape debate in the UK and beyond, and engage a broad and diverse audience worldwide. Find out more about our work at www.demos.co.uk. First published in 2010 © Demos. Some rights reserved Magdalen House, 136 Tooley Street, London, SE1 2TU, UK ISBN 978 1 906693 33 6 Series design by modernactivity Typeset by Chat Noir Design, Charente Printed by Lecturis, Eindhoven Set in Gotham Rounded and Baskerville 10 Cover paper: Flora Gardenia Text paper: Munken Premium White WE MEAN POWER Edited by James Purnell and Graeme Cooke Open access. Some rights reserved. As the publisher of this work, Demos wants to encourage the circulation of our work as widely as possible while retaining the copyright. We therefore have an open access policy which enables anyone to access our content online without charge. Anyone can download, save, perform or distribute this work in any format, including translation, without written permission. This is subject to the terms of the Demos licence found at the back of this publication. Its main conditions are: · Demos and the author(s) are credited · This summary and the address www.demos.co.uk are displayed · The text is not altered and is used in full · The work is not resold · A copy of the work or link to its use online is sent to Demos You are welcome to ask for permission to use this work for purposes other than those covered by the licence. Demos gratefully acknowledges the work of Creative Commons in inspiring our approach to copyright. To find out more go to www.creativecommons.org Contents Acknowledgements 9 We mean power 11 James Purnell and Graeme Cooke Introduction 15 James Purnell and Graeme Cooke 1 We are all social democrats now 49 Ben Jackson 2 Flee your tents, O Israel! Why radical 63 liberalism offers the best hope for the British Left Richard Reeves 3 Equality – a theory of capabilities and 79 disadvantage Jonathan Wolff 4 Equality – if capabilities matter, so do 89 resources Stuart White 5 A new model capitalism 103 Andrew Gamble 6 An embedded economy 113 Maurice Glasman 7 Too averse to the diverse? 127 Mike Kenny Contents 8 Why does the Left need national 141 communities? David Miller 9 Active equality: a democratic agenda for 151 the British Left Marc Stears 10 The Left, democracy and the constitution 165 Meg Russell 9 Acknowledgments We would like to particularly thank the writers who took the time and effort to contribute such thoughtful and insightful essays to this collection: Richard Reeves, Ben Jackson, Stuart White, Jo Wolff, Andrew Gamble, Maurice Glasman, Mike Kenny, David Miller, Marc Stears and Meg Russell. They played a major role in shaping our thinking and demonstrate the depth and seriousness of thinking on the centre-Left today. Thanks also to all those who participated in our one-day seminar on this topic back in November 2009. We would also like to thank Phil Collins, Guy Lodge, Rick Muir and Blair McDougall for additional comments and suggestions on our introductory essay, all of which enhanced the argument and ideas. Finally, thanks to Peter Harrington, Beatrice Karol Burks, Claire Coulier, Dan Chandler and Andy Dixon from Demos whose work helped make this collection possible. Finally we would like to acknowledge Maurice Glasman’s huge influence on our introduction to these papers, through tireless conversation, comments and elaboration. 11 We mean power Ideas for the future of the Left James Purnell and Graeme Cooke We launched the Open Left project in July 2009 by posing a simple yet fundamental question: what does it mean to be on the Left today? This collection aims to offer a set of arguments and ideas to help provide an answer. Whatever happens at the election, the centre-Left needs a serious debate about what it stands for and the sort of society it seeks. And it must be a debate that is rooted in ideas. Fifteen years after the revision of Clause IV and over a decade since Labour came to office, this discussion is both necessary and overdue. The twin crises of the credit crunch and MPs’ expenses only make it more urgent. By addressing tough questions and presenting a range of viewpoints, we have tried to demonstrate that openness and pluralism can be combined with a belief that (in historical terms) there is much that unites significant sections of the British centre-Left as we move into the second decade of the new century. Following a large number of lively and high quality contributions on our website about the essence of centre-Left politics last summer, we decided to crystallise the debate through a set of fundamental tensions, or trade-offs, facing the centre-Left today. The goal was to focus in a precise way on the central issues of principle that reasonable people could reasonably disagree on. These were related to ideology; equality; political economy; community and identity; and power and democracy. We then posed a set of questions probing which direction the centre-Left should take and asked leading political thinkers to offer their responses. We followed this up with a set of debates at a one-day seminar. The product of this process is the collection of essays presented here, which testifies to the vitality of thinking across We mean power the modern centre-Left. It shows that its traditions and values are rich and relevant to today’s problems. Our introduction does not attempt to summarise the complexity or diversity of the ideas expressed throughout the collection, but it does seek to bring together the themes as part of arguing for a simple goal: powerful people in a reciprocal society. After defending the importance of ideology in politics, we try to show how this goal embodies the best of Labour’s traditions and can provide a fertile ground for policy, both for the manifesto and beyond. We hope all the papers in the collection help to inform the ideological and political renewal of the centre-Left in this country in the months and years ahead. 15 Introduction James Purnell and Graeme Cooke Why ideology matters Whatever happens at the next election, the Labour Party will need to renew itself, to make sure the previous generation’s revisionism doesn’t become the next one’s orthodoxy.