'Was Tony Blair's Prime Ministership Neoliberal?': A Survey of British Economic Policy, 1979-2007

The use of the term "neoliberal" has become controversial in recent years, at least in part because of its diversity of possible uses, and the apparent vagueness or looseness of some of those uses. That controversy has significantly extended to the characterization of center-left political parties and their leaders, like the Labour Party's Tony Blair, as neoliberals--a problem exacerbated by a comparative scarcity of summations of the relevant portions of their conduct in office that are at once properly grounded and contextualized, concise and accessible. As a contribution to the establishment of a more substantial foundation for debates over neoliberalism in general, and the British policy record of recent decades, this paper endeavors to offer just such a summation, with an eye to answering the question "Was Tony Blair's Prime Ministership neoliberal?" To that end it endeavors to provide a comprehensive, rigorous definition of neoliberalism taking into account the term's at once referring to multiple, interrelated phenomena, in particular a body of ideology, style of policymaking and economic model. This general discussion of neoliberalism, moreover, is bolstered by a a detailed examination of the stated intentions and actual policies of the Margaret Thatcher prime ministership that is perhaps more widely and firmly identified with the "neoliberal turn" than any other. In considering Thatcher's record, the paper also fills in crucial historical context and provides a still more fully developed basis for assessing Blair prime ministership in light of the definition provided, and the precedent and context created by preceding Conservative governments. Ultimately this paper concludes that Blair's conduct as party leader and prime minister do in fact safely warrant characterization as neoliberal, and indeed as a significant consolidation and extension of the policy thrust from Margaret Thatcher forward. This paper also concludes that this has arguably been obscured by, besides the inadequacies of much of the available literature already mentioned, the extent to which his neoliberalism consisted of acquiescence in and extension of the initiatives of preceding Conservative governments more than presenting new ones of his own; an overreadiness to see even the most modest apparent deviation from the "Thatcherite line" as a break with neoliberalism (for instance, Blair's increased funding of health care, for example, while overlooking his commitment to internal markets, and intensified collaboration with the private sector, which may be said to have furthered the system's characteristically neoliberal privatization); and the degree to which Blair's domestic record has been overshadowed by his foreign policy record, above all his role in the Iraq war.