Manifestos, Policies and Practices

Presenting the case for radical policy reform through an analysis of both the 2017 Labour Party Manifesto and contemporary policies of other UK political parties, Manifestos, Policies and Practices argues that a left-wing, counter-reactionary political agenda must be founded on a robust notion of equality and be committed to fostering citizens’ equality of goods, equality of opportunities and equality of basic capabilities.

The book comprises a series of essays on key policy areas, highlighting the values in each that underpin an equalities agenda. This agenda sets itself against five individualistic versions of human beings: self-interest, bureaucratic imperatives, libertarian impulses, non-reflection and normativity. There are alternatives to these five forms of individualism and the book proposes some of them in the form of radical policy commitments for the economy, education, environment, health, taxation, housing, identity, welfare, ecology and gender.