New labour, old epistemology? Reflections on political science, new institutionalism and the blair government

Parliamentary Affairs

Volumn 60, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 313-331

  McAnulla, Stuart ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 51249151284     PISSN: 00312290     EISSN: 14602482     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/pa/gsm007     Document Type: Review

References (41)

1. M. Bevir, 'Prisoners of Professionalism: On the Construction and Responsibility of Political Studies', Public Administration, 79(2), 2001, 469-89;
2. M. Bevir and R. Rhodes Governance Stories, Routledge, 2006;
3. M. Bevir and R. Rhodes, Interpreting British Governance, Routledge, 2003.
4. For a detailed empirical exposition of the powerful influence of positivism on contemporary political science see D. Marsh and H. Savigny, 'Political Science as A Broad Church: the Search for a Pluralist Discipline,' Politics, 24(3), 2004, 155-68.
5. C. Bay, 'Politics and Pseudo-politics' in C. McCoy (ed.), Apolitical Politics: A Critique of Behaviouralism, Crowell, 1971;
6. M.Q. Sibley, 'The Limits of Behaviouralism', in J. Charlesworth, Contemporary Political Analysis, Free Press, 1967.
7. S. Lukes, Power: A Radical View, Macmillan, 1974;
8. B. Jessop, State Theory: Putting Capitalist States in their Place, Polity, 1990.
9. Bevir is careful to point out that it is problematic to lump together different theorists under broad labels such as 'institutionalists'.
10. P. Hall and R. Taylor, 'Political Science and the three New Institutionalisms', Political Studies, 4(5), 1996, 936-57;
11. C. Hay and D. Wincott, 'Structure, Agency and Historical Institutionalism', Political Studies, 46(5), 1998, 951-7.
12. P.B. Guy, Institutional Theory in Political Science: the 'New Institutionalism', Pinter, 1999.
13. This is not to say that the concept of 'path-dependency' is always deployed similarly or unproblematically. In common with other terms sometimes used in new institutionalism definitions vary and often are given little theoretical nourishment. However, see I. Greener, 'The Potential of Path Dependence in Political Studies', Politics, 25(1), 2005, 62-72 for arguments as to how morphogenetic social theory can support and embellish conceptions of path dependency.
14. M.S. Archer, et al., Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
15. R. Heffernan, New Labour and Thatcherism, Palgrave, 2001;
16. S. Watkins, 'A Weightless Hegemony', New Left Review, 25(1), 2004, 3-29.
17. Though the way in which new Labour has at times seemed almost unquestioning in its belief that market mechanisms are can reinvigorate the public sector might be used to contest this interpretation.
18. Some might question whether Labour's reliance on positivism of any particular significance. After all, one might equally regard other post-war British governments as positivist in character. The British State's use of positivist/empiricist techniques of quantification and measurement as a means to help determine and implement policies is well established. Given the traditionally top-down character of the British State it might be thought wholly unsurprising that new Labour would adopt a positivist mindset. However, it ought to be stressed that the intellectual background in against which new Labour operates is very different to that surrounding early post-war governments. Much of the general optimism regarding the benefits that a rigorous social science might bring society has dissipated and, as highlighted above, positivism itself is widely discredited in intellectual circles. It is surely then of some import to explain why a contemporary government would not just adopt positivism but even give it a new lease of life with its emphasis on 'evidence-based' policy.
19. J. Newman, Modernising Governance, Sage, 2001.
20. E. Clarence and C. Painter, 'Public Services Under New Labour: Collaborative Discourses and Local Networking', Public Policy and Administration, 13(3), 1998, 8-22.
21. See, for instance, overlapping conceptions found within 'critical realist' literature, for example, R. Bhaskar, Plato Etc: The Problems of Philosophy and their Resolution, Verso, 1994;
22. M. Archer, et al., Critical Realism: Essential Readings, Routledge, 1998, pp. 16-47;
23. A. Collier, Critical Realism: An Introduction to Roy Bhaskar's Philosophy, Verso, 1994,
24. and A. Sayer, Realism and Social Science, Sage, 2000.
25. There is insufficient space here to fully introduce such perspectives; however, I outline critical realism (and contrast it with Bevir's interpretivism) as given in S. McAnulla, 'Challenging the New Interpretivism - Towards a Critical Realist Alternative', British Politics, 1(1), 2006, (pp. 113-136).
26. See also S. McAnulla, 'Making Hay With Actualism? The Need for A Realist Concept of Structure,' Politics, 25(1), 2005, 31-38 for discussion of critical realist views on the 'structure-agency' question.
27. M.S. Archer, et al., Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
28. I. Sanderson, 'Evaluation in Complex Policy Systems', Evaluation, 6, 2000, 433-54.
29. Cm. 4310 (1999) Modernising Government, Stationary Office.
30. Cm. 4014 (1998) Modern Local Government, Stationary Office.
31. The problem being that new Labour's own narratives are often (as Bevir highlights) presented as selfevidently the correct view, attempting to limit the space for alternative constructions. However, some reforms (such as new compulsions on local authorities to consult communities and other local bodies) do create new opportunities for dialogue.
32. S. Martin, 'Speeches and Addresses: Evaluation, Inspection and the Improvement Agenda: Contrasting Fortunes in an Era of Evidence-Based Policy-Making', Evaluation, 11, 2005, 496-504.
33. S. McAnulla, British Politics: A Critical Introduction, Continuum, 2006;
34. J. Newman, Modernising Governance, Sage, 2001, p. 153.
35. I. Sanderson, 'Evidence into Practice: Perspectives on Rationality', Evaluation, 10, 2004, 366-79.
36. R.J. Willmott, 'Structure, Agency and School Effectiveness: Researching a 'Failing' School,' Educational Studies, 25(1), 1999, 5-18.
37. I refer here particularly to the formation of 'Compass' - 'New Labour needs a new ambition - to redirect modern capitalism, not just adapt to its demands; to transform society, not merely to administer it. Still likely to win a third term, Labour has an unparalleled opportunity to shape the world according to progressive values. But this requires both clarity about moral and ideological purpose and boldness about the ways in which it can be enacted. The opportunity will only be successfully grasped if it dares to shift its thinking' Compass: Statement, September 2003 (www.compassonline.org.uk/read.asp).
38. ibid.
39. For example, perspectives being advocated by the editors of the new Labour linked journal Renewal. Lawson et al. in N. Lawson, P. Neal and S. Goss, '(Not) As good as it gets', Renewal, 12(3), 2004 recently argue 'Social democracy and capitalism cannot be triangulated - more of one means less of the other. The job of social democratic governments is to draw and redraw the lines between democracy and the market, the individual and the collective, the public and the private. If we give in to the principle of market supremacy then we won't know where or how to draw those lines. Worse still, we end up not knowing that lines have to be drawn at all.'
40. C. Hay, The Political Economy of New Labour: Labouring Under False Pretences? Manchester University Press, 1999, p. 165.
41. For in effect, Bevir is calling on social democrats to abandon any notion that there are objective circumstances to which a social democratic project can respond. In other words he seeks to deprive progressive political perspectives of the kinds of groundings upon which they have often traditionally been formed.