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Open Left

Open Left

Andrew Gamble

(2018)

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Book Details

Abstract

The ten years since the financial crash have been lean years for progressive politics of all kinds. Now Brexit in the UK, Trump in the US, and the rising tide of national populism in Europe pose new dangers. Parties of the Centre-Left are in retreat. Old bases of support have declined, old policies are out of touch, old assumptions no longer hold.
At the same time new thinking, new innovations, new forces are turning the world upside down. We face great dangers but also great opportunities.
How should those who still want a progressive future respond? This book argues that the first priority is an Open Left. We must abandon the idea that one tradition of progressive thought has all the answers. We need openness to new policy ideas, openness to learning from past mistakes and other’s experiences. We should be prepared to listen to very different voices and very different intellectual traditions. We must find ways to engage with people from a wide range of communities and backgrounds.
An Open Left also recognizes we cannot retreat from the world, or ignore economic and political realities. We need a dialogue with progressive movements from many different countries, learning from their experiences of putting progressive ideas into action.
The idea of progress can still inspire change, but it needs updating. This book is a contribution to that task.
Andrew Gamble is a professor of politics at the University of Sheffield and emeritus professor of politics at the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and Academy of Social Sciences and has been a joint editor of New Political Economy and Political Quarterly.
He is the author of many books on politics and political economy, including The Conservative Nation, The Free Economy and the Strong State, The Spectre at the Feast, Crisis without End? The Unravelling of Western Prosperity, and Can the Welfare State Survive?

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Cover Cover
OPEN LEFT i
OPEN LEFT: The Future of Progressive Politics iii
Copyrigh page iv
CONTENTS v
PREFACE vii
WHERE WE ARE 1
THREATS TO INTERNATIONAL ORDER 5
THREATS TO EQUALITY AND INCLUSIVENESS 7
THREATS TO PLURALISM AND DEMOCRACY 10
THE WEAKENED CAPACITY OF THE STATE 13
A NEW PROGRESSIVE PROJECT? 15
SECURITY 21
THE GLOBALISATION PARADOX 23
REGIONAL COOPERATION: THE CASEOF THE EUROPEAN UNION 26
IMMIGRATION 29
FOREIGN POLICY AND DEFENCE 34
ECONOMY 41
AFTER THE CRASH 49
A NEW ECONOMIC MODEL 56
WELFARE 65
THE FUTURE OF THE WELFARE STATE 79
DEMOCRACY 85
HOW SHOULD DEMOCRACY BE REFORMED? 90
CIVIL SOCIETY 95
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN 97
INEQUALITY 100
THE WAY AHEAD 103
PROGRESSIVE NARRATIVES 106
GUIDE TO FURTHER READING 113