This thesis examines for the first time the impact of steel nationalisation during the 1945-1951 Labour Governments across five key fields of study: The Labour Party, the Conservative Party, the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation (ISTC), the British Iron and Steel Federation (BISF), and disaffected ex-Labour MP Alfred Edwards. It assesses the trajectory of nationalisation in the Labour movement and the impact of the policy on divisions within the Labour Party both inside and outside of the Cabinet. The thesis also examines three previously unexplored opposition campaigns waged against steel nationalisation by the Conservatives, the BISF, and Alfred Edwards, who was expelled from the Labour Party for his resistance to the nationalisation of steel. Although there have been many works published on Attlee’s Labour Governments, only two have explicitly concentrated on steel nationalisation (Ross, 1965, McEachern, 1980). Moreover, these works fail to examine the impact of the policy upon the five case studies assessed in this work. The thesis complements the limited secondary literature with extensive archival research in each of the five areas examined. Through these investigations it is argued that steel nationalisation was the crucial ideological divide between the two major political parties in this period. Labour advocated the nationalisation of steel due to prior inefficiency and monopoly within the industry. Whereas, the Conservatives believed that the steel industry was neither a failing industry nor a public utility and that these factors presented a critical watershed between nationalisation for ideological purposes and, as had been argued in other industries, nationalisation out of economic necessity. Labour’s pursuit of steel nationalisation resulted in the largest anti-Government vote of Attlee’s 1945-1950 administration, led to heated debates within the Labour Party – highlighted by serious Cabinet disagreements over the policy, and 143 Labour MPs signing a petition demanding the immediate nationalisation of steel in 1947 - and caused major opposition groups to fight large scale anti-nationalisation campaigns against the Labour Government. The study of these Parliamentary and public debates surrounding the nationalisation of steel offers significant and original insights into the Labour Governments of 1945-1951.

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The attitudes toward the empire of a small group of Labour Party spokesmen are compared in this thesis. Considered collectively these attitudes suggest that the Labour Party had developed a distinctive form of imperialism which was derived from a reasoned evaluation of the needs and aspirations of the dependent peoples. The historiography of the Labour Party indicates some Labour interest in the peoples of the empire, but it has not, as yet, systematically examined the collective views of key Labour leaders. It would seem that historians have assumed generally that, except for the Fabian Society, the Labour Party was decidedly anti-imperialistic. Through an examination of the writings of the spokesmen, and by demonstrating to what extent their views were reflected in party policy, the present study attempts to establish that Labour had developed its own form of imperialism. After an analysis of historiography in the introduction, this thesis explains that Labour imperial attitudes originated in a stream of nineteenth century liberal radicalism rather than in any form of doctrinaire socialism. Chapter three introduces the spokesmen and demonstrates that they were imperialists in that they were willing to retain the empire until certain objectives were achieved. Underlying religious motivations are then discussed. These show a strong desire among Labour leaders to regard the empire as an opportunity to exercise a missionary zeal to elevate humanity intellectually and morally. Trusteeship notions, the heart of Labour imperialism, are then examined. Finally, before concluding, the Labour philosophy of trusteeship is related to the question of free trade. Labour imperialism was benevolent, seeking to realize the advantages of empire through a policy of trusteeship which was designed to prepare colonial peoples to engage in a willing partnership. It involved a selection of colonial service personnel, a promotion of race and culture blending, and a development of colonial material resources with minimal disturbance of native social institutions. It was also based on a belief in an extension of domestic social legislation to the colonies. This economically and socially developing empire was to serve as a temporary substitute, and to a large extent, as a model for an ideal world federation to be eventually achieved. This study shows that Labour leaders were not opposed to empire per se, but against certain contemporary imperial activities which they regarded as indicating the mismanagement of empire. They were paternalistic in their proposed form of dominance, but willing, far more than representatives of other parties, to prepare colonial peoples to develop their abilities to survive independently. In this sense they were democratic idealists. They regarded mutual trust as the only way through which the long-range advantages of empire might be preserved. This study substantiates that influential party leaders largely agreed upon an imperial philosophy that was consistent and continuous since 1900, the year in which the party began as the Labour Representative Committee. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

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Univ., Habil.-Schr.--Potsdam, 2003. / Literaturverz. S. [414] - 461.

During the past two decades, extensive research efforts have focused on the conventional wisdom that the economy has a direct influence on a party's destiny. This hypothesis rests on the implicit assumption that the linkages between macroeconomic variables such as inflation and unemployment and party support are direct and unmediated. As the present study indicates, however, objective economic measures only serve as a proxy for the invisible force that drives voters' party support. Once the relevant variables, namely, the perceptual factors of the electorate, are controlled for, variables that describe the state of the objective economy fail to exert their "magic" on political behavior.

This study represents the intellectual biography of an idea. That idea is the Welfare to Work regime of the New Labour government of Tony Blair over the period 1997 to 2007. This Welfare to Work regime is situated within a concept of an Enabling State developed in speeches by New Labour Ministers, particularly Blair, Gordon Brown, David Blunkett and the brothers Ed and David Miliband. The study elaborates the concept of 'enabling', traces its origins back, partly to the debates at Putney at the end of the English Civil War, partly through working-class history, and partly through the transformation of Gladstonian Liberalism wrought by New Liberals such as T.H. Green, L.T. Hobhouse and J.A. Hobson between 1880 and 1914. lt will argue that New Labour can be understood only by reference back to these origins. The study will also define the Enabling State by defining its opposite, the Disabling State created, albeit unintentionally, by the Conservatives between 1979 and 1997. The study employs a subset of Discourse Analysis, Speech Act Theory, to study the Labour speeches, since there has yet not been elaborated a 'theory of the Enabling State'. A participant observation is also employed to discuss how 'enabling' works at the level of individuals. The study is an attempt to 'read history backwards' as it were: to define the enabling state as it exists now, at least at the level of rhetoric, and then, as practical history, to trace lead ideas back to their sources, and to find antecedents: not cause and effect, for that is too difficult, but to find practices, traditions, concepts and discourse on which New Labour have been able to draw. This study will argue that, far from abandoning traditional Labour values, New Labour has found new ways to realise them.

Thesis advisor: Peter H. Weiler / In 1997, New Labor embraced an ideal of multiculturalism in an attempt to foster a particular brand of open communication and respectful cooperation among different individuals and cultural groups. This MA thesis investigates the background to one aspect of this multiculturalism, New Labor's education policies. The thesis shows how New Labor's current multicultural ideal originated in the 1960s in Labor's attempts to combat racial discrimination. As its attempts proved inadequate, Labor expanded its understanding of what was necessary to create a tolerant society, including educational policies that fostered tolerance, respect for different cultural groups, and personal responsibility. During eighteen years spent in opposition to a Conservative majority government, Labor refined its ideal of multiculturalism in debates, forging a path from the idealistic and radical reforms of the 1960s and 1970s toward New Labor's middle way. This thesis describes how New Labor utilized a variety of tools to achieve the goal of a tolerant, cooperative, multicultural society, including repurposing Conservatives' policies. This thesis defends multiculturalism as an appropriate response to a changing political environment, one that attempted to deal with the exigent circumstances presented by racial discrimination, class and cultural based underachievement, and underlying cultural tensions. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

Le long processus de revendication de l’autonomie en Écosse était couronné de succès en 1997 avec le rétablissement d’un Parlement local. Aujourd’hui, à quelques années seulement de cet événement majeur, l'actualité s’intéresse déjà à l'organisation d’un référendum sur l’indépendance complète du pays qui se tiendrait prochainement. En politique, une semaine est décidément une longue période, comme l'affirmait l’ancien Premier ministre Harold Wilson. Mais est-ce une raison valable pour oublier le passé ? Qui s'intéresse, par exemple, aujourd’hui à un autre référendum écossais, celui de 1979 ? Celui-ci, en dépit de son échec "programmé" ne mérite pas le mépris des historiens car c’est à partir de ce "désastre" politique que le processus conduisant à 1997 tire sa force. Cette thèse est une analyse minutieuse de l'état d’esprit en Écosse et les facteurs divers et contradictoires incitant l'électorat écossais à l'enthousiasme, au désintérêt et à l'absentéisme lors du référendum de 1979. Elle cherche à comprendre comment une nation dont le sentiment identitaire est si fort n’a pas trouvé de point de ralliement dans un projet politique visant à lui donner plus d'autonomie. Elle analyse comment un gouvernement de gauche a cru nécessaire de proposer un projet de dévolution en opposition avec sa propre philosophie politique et qui l'a conduit à sa perte. Enfin, elle explore comment la "victoire" des opposants à ce projet de dévolution, et tout particulièrement le Parti conservateur britannique, pouvait si mal interpréter le vrai message de l'électorat écossais lors de ce grand rendez-vous manqué. Cette thèse invite les historiens à une meilleure appréciation de la notion de "défaite" en politique et rappelle l'importance parfois très complexe du rôle joué par le passé dans les choix identitaires présents et à venir du peuple écossais. / Scotland’s long road to self-government was crowned with success in 1997 when the parliament was re-established in Edinburgh. Today, within only a few years of this momentous event, political analysts have already turned their attention to a forthcoming referendum on complete independence. As a former Prime minister was once keen to point out “a week is a long time in politics”, but is it a valid reason for ignoring the past? Who today, for instance, is interested in another referendum, that of 1979? Despite its image of "programmed” failure, this historical event does not deserve the contempt it has received from historians for it is precisely from this “disaster” that the processes leading to 1997 can be traced. This thesis is a detailed analysis of the state of mind of the Scottish people and the various and contradictory factors which pushed them towards enthusiasm, disinterest and absenteeism during the referendum of 1979. It seeks to understand how a nation so imbued with the sense of its own identity was unable to support a political project aimed at giving it more control over its own affairs. It analyses how a left-wing government found it necessary to propose a project of devolution of its own powers which was in conflict with its own political philosophy and which ultimately led to its own self-destruction. Finally, it examines how the message sent by the Scottish people at the time of this great “victory” should have been so badly understood by the antis and in particular by the Conservative Party. This thesis invites historians to think more carefully about the notion of “defeat” in political terms and remember the importance and often complex role played by the past, and popular images of the past, in shaping the sense of belonging and identity in the present and determining the future choices of the people of Scotland.

By the 1960s violence became institutionalized in modern Jamaican politics. This endemic violence fostered an unstable political environment that developed out of a symbiotic relationship between Jamaican labor organizations and political violence. Consequently, the political process was destabilized by the corrosive influence of partisan politics, whereby party loyalists dependent on political patronage were encouraged by the parties to defend local constituencies and participate in political conflict. Within this system the Jamaican general election process became ominous and violent, exemplifying how limited political patronage was dispersed among loyal party supporters. This dissertation examines the role of the political parties and how they mobilized grassroot supporters through inspirational speeches, partisan ideology, complex political patronage networks, and historic party platform issues from 1940 through 1980. The dissertation argues that the development of Jamaican trade unionism and its corresponding leadership created the political framework out of which Jamaica's two major political parties, the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) and People's National Party (PNP) emerged. Within the evolution of their support base Jamaican politicians such as Alexander Bustamante utilized their influence over local constituencies to create a garrison form of mobilization that relied heavily upon violence. By investigating the social and political connection between local politicians and violence, this dissertation examines how events such as the Henry Rebellion in 1960, the 1978 Green Bay Massacre, and the public murder of the PNP candidate Roy McGann in 1980 demonstrate the failure of traditional Jamaican political patronage to control extremist violence among grassroot supporters, giving rise to a general public dissatisfaction with the established Jamaican leadership. This transformation of the political system resulted in the institutionalization of political violence by the late 1960s, and a pattern of general elections destabilized by vicious conflicts between JLP and PNP gangs. This political violence was reflected in the rise of gang dons such as Jim Brown and Wayne "Sandokhan" Smith who became independent of the patronage system through their exploitation of the drug trade. Consequently, modern Jamaican politics in the twenty-first century is fractured and local political leaders have lost control of the gangs.