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A Discursive Enquiry Into The Political Economy Of New Labour: Is It A Rupture From Or A Perpetuation Of Neoliberal Hegemony?

From the 1980&rsquo / s onwards a new conceptual framework which will be
subsequently called neoliberalism has become hegemonic by transforming and
redefining the common sense.
In the midst of the world economic crisis in the 1970s which would bring the
collapse of Keynesian paradigm, a new political culture promoting the superiority of
market-based order has started to emerge. Subsequently during the 1980s, by
establishing &lsquo / market-oriented society&rsquo / as the new dominant paradigm, neoliberal
hegemony has realized furher seperation of &lsquo / economics&rsquo / from the &lsquo / politics.&rsquo / In this respect, regarding the implementation of neoliberal policies, Great
Britain can be considered as a prime example. During the last three decades, political
atmosphere of Great Britain has to a large extent been shaped under the influence of
neoliberal hegemony that has engendered a significant paradigm shift in the
country&rsquo / s political economy. Meanwhile in the rapidly changing political atmosphere
of 1980&rsquo / s and 1990&rsquo / s, British Labour Party has also gone through a gradual ideological transformation that culminated in the emergence of New Labour. Despite
its initial claim to novelty, since New Labour is itself an actor that is formed during
the hegemony of neoliberalism, its possible affiliation with the neoliberal paradigm
deserves attention.
In this sense, in order to analyse its affiliation with the neoliberal hegemony,
this thesis attempts to develop a discursive enquiry into the political economy of
New Labour.
Consequently, by relying on remarkable findings which indicate the commonalities between New Labour and neoliberalism, this thesis advocates that
although being different from the initial neoliberal stance of &lsquo / Thatcherism&rsquo / , New
Labour perpetuates neoliberal hegemony insofar it takes neoliberal political
economy&rsquo / s basic premises as for granted.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12611164/index.pdf
Date01 September 2009
CreatorsSavas, Efe
ContributorsYalman, Galip
PublisherMETU
Source SetsMiddle East Technical Univ.
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeM.S. Thesis
Formattext/pdf
RightsAccess forbidden for 1 year

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