Webber, David M. (2012) From Whitehall to the world : international development and the global reconfiguration of New Labour's political economy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Since the creation of the Department for International Development (DFID) in
1997, much scholarly effort has been concentrated on describing New Labour's
international development policy outputs. Within these accounts however, there
has been little, if any, treatment of how its development policies actually came
to be formed, or even more specifically, analysis of the linkages between this
branch of foreign policy and New Labour's domestic political economy. My thesis
seeks to fill this gap in the literature. My major contribution is to show that the
character and orientation of a set of policies designed initially by New Labour
officials for the domestic economy were subsequently 'recycled' and transmitted
abroad into the field of international development. I test such a claim empirically
through three case studies exploring in depth the core policy areas of debt relief,
HIV and AIDS, and overseas aid, through which I am able to trace the way that
ideas first developed at home were subsequently transposed into its
international development policy. This provides the framework which allows me
to examine how the Blair and Brown Governments managed the frequently
conflicting expectations of the two sets of 'market' and 'social' constituencies in
the construction of their international development policy. While 'social'
constituencies were successful in influencing processes of policy change which
iteratively moved policy closer to their expectations, on the whole its character
still favoured the demands of the 'market' constituencies, as had been the case
previously in its domestic political economy. Although New Labour's
international development policies appeared to become more 'social' over time,
this did not mean that they became dominated by 'social concerns'. My overall
characterisation of New Labour’s often complex phasing of its international
development policy, then, is that it remained market-driven albeit not exclusively
market-oriented.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions J Political Science > JZ International relations
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Economic development, Great Britain -- Economic policy -- 1997-, Great Britain -- Foreign economic relations -- 1997-, International relief -- Great Britain, Debt relief -- Great Britain
Official Date:	June 2012
Dates:	Date Event June 2012 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Politics and International Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Watson, Matthew, 1969- ; Clift, Ben
Extent:	x, 480 leaves : ill.
Language:	eng

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