Justifying New Labour Policy (Electronic book text)

Justifying New Labour Policy is an original combination of theoretical innovation and a detailed empirical analysis of the ideas, language and policy of New Labour. Politicians often appeal to moral principles and arguments in their efforts to win support for new policy programmes. Yet the question of how politicians use moral language has to date been neglected by scholars, and this book is a first step towards filling this gap. Judi Atkins proposes a new theoretical framework for exploring the processes by which an argumentative strategy is selected, modified and applied. Such strategies are formed in the light of a party's ideological commitments, the requirements of argumentation in each policy area, and the need to secure hegemonic advantage over an opponent. This framework is rigorously applied to New Labour's moral arguments for the New Deals, the Human Rights Act, its anti-social behaviour agenda and the Iraq war of 2003.