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Complexity constraint and New Labour's putative neo-liberalism: a reply to Colin Hay

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Clift, Ben and Tomlinson, Jim. (2007) Complexity constraint and New Labour's putative neo-liberalism: a reply to Colin Hay. British Journal of Political Science, Vol.37 (No.2). pp. 378-381. ISSN 0007-1234

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/0007123407000191

Abstract

Colin Hay's combative response is a welcome engagement with our ideas. Let us first set out where the battle lines are drawn. The most important points in Hay's shot across our bows relate to accommodating the notion of complexity; defining Keynesianism; invoking Labour's past; the relationship between fiscal and monetary policy; and the evidential basis for our argument.

The first point involves admitting complexity when characterizing a political economy. In essence, we agree with Hay about the need to admit complexity into the explanation and characterization of New Labour's political economy, but he does not recognize in our account that this has been successfully achieved, nor do we see it in how he characterizes the relationship between New Labour and neo-liberalism. This is in part a disagreement about how to operationalize the insight about the need to admit greater complexity into the analysis of the political economy of New Labour's macroeconomic policy making. For example, our account of complexity accepts that, under a particular set of monetary policy conditions, which are not in any straightforward sense Keynesian, it is nevertheless legitimate and useful to consider the ‘Keynesianness’ of the fiscal policy regime. Hay, by contrast, sees this as a dubious manœuvre, no doubt fuelled by the unspecified ‘normative bias’ he detects in our work and refers to enigmatically but repeatedly.

Similarly, we recognize that Hay has identified the need to admit complexity into analysis. However, in our reading of his work there remains a sense that, in the final analysis, New Labour's is a neo-liberal political economy.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Subjects:

H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance

Divisions:

Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):

Labour Party (Great Britain), Keynesian economics, Macroeconomics -- Great Britain, Economic policy -- Decision making, Great Britain -- Economic conditions -- 1997-

Journal or Publication Title:

British Journal of Political Science

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

ISSN:

0007-1234

Official Date:

20 March 2007

Dates:

Date	Event
20 March 2007	Published

Volume:

Vol.37

Number:

No.2

Page Range:

pp. 378-381

Identification Number:

10.1017/0007123407000191

Status:

Peer Reviewed

Access rights to Published version:

Open Access

Version or Related Resource:

Written as a response to: Hay, C. (2007). What’s in a Name? New Labour’s Putative Keynesianism. British Journal of Political Science, 37(1), pp. 187–92.

References:

Colin Hay, ‘What’s in a Name? New Labour’s Putative Keynesianism’, British Journal of Political Science, 37 (2007), 187–92.
Ben Clift and Jim Tomlinson, ‘Credible Keynesianism?NewLabour Macroeconomic Policy and the Political
Economy of Coarse Tuning’, British Journal of Political Science, 37 (2007), 47–69.
C. Hay, ‘Credibility, Competitiveness and the Business Cycle in “Third Way” Political Economy: A Critical
Evaluation of Economic Policy in Britain since 1997’, New Political Economy, 9 (2004), 39–56.
G. O’Hara, ‘Dynamic, Exciting, Thrilling Change: The Wilson Government’s Economic Policies,
1964–1970’, Contemporary British History, 20 (2006), 383–402.
Colin Hay and Ben Rosamund, ‘Globalization, European Integration and the Discursive Construction of
Economic Imperatives’, Journal of European Public Policy, 9 (2002), 147–67.
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Organization, 54 (2000), 737–73.
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Times (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
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