The Progressive Dilemma: From Lloyd George to Blair [Paperback]

Marquand can himself be understood as a 'progressive', a liberal thinker who abhors the fundamentalist and introspective manner of mechanistic interpretations of society and of the individuals who comprise it. He is anathema to some because of his rejection of that doctrine and dogma, but also to others because of his decision to join the Social Democratic Party after Labour in the 1980s moved ever nearer towards adopting a position close to fundamental Marxism. For those wanting an explanation for the continual self-mutilation by the Labour Party and a reason for the seeming indomitability of Thatcherism masquerading as political thought, he offers the thoughtful exposition that the conflict between the conservative and exclusionary ideals of Socialism continually frustrate the more inclusive and responsive ideals of Social Democracy.

It is the unhappy and argumentative cohabitation of Socialism and Social Democracy in the Labour Party, along with the over simplification that comes from a 'left v. right' explanation of political value and thought, that has hamstrung the British progressive movement. The Labour Party was set up not as a free-standing political party but as the direct embodiment of working class interests. Marquand therefore argues that whilst there have been other European Social Democratic parties, in Britain there has only been the singular representation of working class interests that has excluded both liberals and Liberals from joining the Labour Party; and ultimately failing both the working class and liberal progressives both electorally and intellectually.

For Marquand, the success of New Labour at the polls in 1997 (and now 2001) shows not that there has been successful 'modernisation' of the Labour Party, but that Blair and his acolytes have successfully convinced people that progression is constant, it is inevitable and that ultimately only they have the method and ability to achieve it. This style of thinking attempts to argue that through a revision of the progressive movement it is now embodied in the 'modernisation' movement. This, the final chapters argue, take no regard for the historical and social context that precede it. With the proud exaltations of being 'free of ideology' the New Labour movement faces the problem of being, ultimately, substanceless in form and principle. It is not progressive to be elected on the understanding that you are not the person who is being thrown out. That only leads to a drifting, formlessness and ad hoc gesture politics and government.

Marquand, who is better placed than most to analyse the events that have shaken and shaped the progressive argument, in the end calls for the progressive, social democratic argument to be taken up again, to be placed in its rightful historical context. He argues for battles to be fought against the small-mindedness and greed of neo-liberals but also against the fundamentalist forces inside the far-left that speak of mechanics, inevitability and the seductive charm of guaranteed progress. The legacy - but also to their eternal detriment - of Thatcherism, neo-liberalism and laisser-faire economics is that they claim that there is no real society, whilst in the process of destroying it. On this understanding market forces should be left to distribute their brutalisation and subjugation equally and impartially to all, disregarding those in the safety of privilege, advantage, power and wealth.

Capitalism and market forces do not have to be the master of society and of people, Marquand argues, though at the moment they are understood as such, given justification and explanation through the quasi-religion of the worst sort of economics. It is therefore essential to provide substance to social democracy 'because it [is] the most obvious port in which to shelter from the neo-capitalist storm'. It is this challenge that he lays at the feet of all Social Democrat progressives and a good way of beginning to answer is by reading this book.