Andrew Glyn – författare

Never has the Left held power in so many advanced economies, yet never has the difference that this makes to economic policy been so hard to specify. Across a range of European countries and in Australia, governments of the Left have struggled to chart a distinctive course in the face of the neoliberal backlash against state intervention, the welfare state, and guaranteed full employment. This volume is the first to examine the record of these governments in securing high employment and a more equal distribution of income in the face of slow growth and global pressures to reduce inflation. Detailed studies of governments from Mitterand to Blair and from Keating to Papandreou by leading writers from the countries are complemented by surveys of experience of the welfare state and of the ideological and historical background to these governments' attempts to further the objectives of social democracy.

Never has the Left held power in so many advanced economies, yet never has the difference that this makes to economic policy been so hard to specify. Across a range of European countries and in Australia governments of the Left have struggled to chart a distinctive course in the face of the neoliberal backlash against state intervention, the welfare state, and guaranteed full employment. This volume is the first to examine the records of these governments in securing high employment and a more equal distribution of income in the face of slow growth and global pressures to reduce inflation. Detailed studies of governments from Mitterrand to Blair and from Keating to Papandreou by leading writers from the countries are complemented by surveys of experience of the welfare state and of the ideological and historical background to these governments' attempts to further the objectives of social democracy.

This book charts the development of capitalism in the post-war period and describes the challenges that the system has faced since 1945. It describes the measures that were taken to deal with the post-war slump and the ways in which most capitalist economies achieved steady growth and affluence in the 1950s and 1960s. It goes on to show how this boom was undermined by unemployment ensued.

Mass unemployment has undermined the living standards of millions of working people and their families, has eroded many essential services and has been used to justify a major assault on hard-won trade union and democratic rights.For these reasons the restoration of full employment must necessarily be, and be seen to be, the first objective of a new Labour Government. That task cannot be achieved unless we are ready to make substantial changes in the way we work, and in the way we think.In this book Labour's Socialist Campaign Group argue that unemployment is not inevitable or insoluble; nor that policies to resolve it, if pursued resolutely, could be frustrated; nor that it could be overcome by a bit of fine-tuning that left market forces in charge.The arguments set out here should give hope to millions of people who are now in despair, and those in the Labour movement will recognise them as the authentic and legitimate inheritance of our democratic and socialist traditions.For all these reasons this pamphlet should be widely read, studied and publicly discussed, as a basis for more detailed work.The surest way to win the majority support which we must have if we are to end the present nightmare, and re-establish our society on a basis that is fair to those who create the nation's wealth is to give full employment the priority it needs if it is to be achieved.

The essays in this study contribute to an analysis of the prospects for the world's economy in the face of environmental constraints. The contributors examine the implications of development in both northern and southern hemispheres, and the extreme differences between rich and poor nations in the distribution of income, resource use and consumption. Using extensive case studies from WIDER-sponsored research, the text explores the limits and consequences of further development.