Left in the Wilderness
The Political Economy of British Democratic Socialism Since 1979
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11951135 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Noel Thompson (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 263-267 |
| Publication date | 2005-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Capital & Class (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0309-8168 • E-ISSN: 2041-0980 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/030981680508700116 |
| OpenAlex | W427945797 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
The years since 1979 have seen unprecedented challenges to socialism, which have threatened to strip it of its social constituency, destroy its ideological foundations and render it prescriptively defunct. In this major assessment of the socialist project, Noel Thompson examines the state of socialist political economy in Britain considering how it has reacted to these challenges, and what its future might be. Thompson charts how its constituent elements have been shaped and articulated over the last twenty years, examining in turn the political economies of the alternative economic ; municipal socialism, decentralised socialism, market socialism, Keynesian social democracy, supply-side socialism, radical stakeholderism, the Anglo-American-model social democracy and multinational socialism. Thompson shows how each of these has failed to counter effectively the ideological and material threats posed by neo-liberalism and transnational capitalism and, in a forceful and convincing analysis, argues that the capitalism which democratic socialism now confronts has left little theoretical or prescriptive room for socialist advance or manoeuvre. As we begin the twenty-first century its political economies appear theoretically exhausted and the Left in Britain has entered an ideological wilderness from which there seems little prospect of return. Left in the Wilderness is a challenging and uncompromising critique of socialist political economies from a socialist historian. Although its conclusions will not be welcomed by the Left, the author's penetrating analysis cannot be ignored. The book will be required reading for all students of recent British economic and political history
Communism · Democracy · Economic system · Economics · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Socialism · Wilderness · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Political Economy and Marxism
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,22 |
| Citation span | 2003 - 2014 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |