{"title":"“和工党在一起会更好”?1979 - 1992年,财政政策、选举策略和通向约翰·史密斯影子预算之路","authors":"Peter Sloman","doi":"10.1093/hisres/htab037","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The failure of John Smith’s ‘Shadow Budget’ to deliver a Labour victory in the 1992 general election has taken on a mythical status in narratives around the development of New Labour. This article sets the episode in a larger context by examining the development of Labour’s fiscal policies in opposition after 1979, in the face of rising inequality, public-sector austerity, and regressive tax reforms. It traces how successive election defeats drove a process of political learning, which came to revolve around the effort to reassure floating voters that a Labour government could control tax, spending and borrowing. The 1992 defeat seemed to demonstrate the difficulty of winning support for redistribution in the face of ‘tax bombshell’ attacks, and so paved the way for the more cautious and incremental fiscal politics of Gordon Brown and New Labour.","PeriodicalId":13059,"journal":{"name":"Historical Research","volume":"35 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6000,"publicationDate":"2021-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"‘Better off with Labour’? Fiscal policy, electoral strategy and the road to John Smith’s shadow budget, 1979–92\",\"authors\":\"Peter Sloman\",\"doi\":\"10.1093/hisres/htab037\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"The failure of John Smith’s ‘Shadow Budget’ to deliver a Labour victory in the 1992 general election has taken on a mythical status in narratives around the development of New Labour. This article sets the episode in a larger context by examining the development of Labour’s fiscal policies in opposition after 1979, in the face of rising inequality, public-sector austerity, and regressive tax reforms. It traces how successive election defeats drove a process of political learning, which came to revolve around the effort to reassure floating voters that a Labour government could control tax, spending and borrowing. The 1992 defeat seemed to demonstrate the difficulty of winning support for redistribution in the face of ‘tax bombshell’ attacks, and so paved the way for the more cautious and incremental fiscal politics of Gordon Brown and New Labour.\",\"PeriodicalId\":13059,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Historical Research\",\"volume\":\"35 2\",\"pages\":\"\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.6000,\"publicationDate\":\"2021-09-30\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Historical Research\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1090\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1093/hisres/htab037\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"历史学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"HISTORY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Historical Research","FirstCategoryId":"1090","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/hisres/htab037","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
‘Better off with Labour’? Fiscal policy, electoral strategy and the road to John Smith’s shadow budget, 1979–92
The failure of John Smith’s ‘Shadow Budget’ to deliver a Labour victory in the 1992 general election has taken on a mythical status in narratives around the development of New Labour. This article sets the episode in a larger context by examining the development of Labour’s fiscal policies in opposition after 1979, in the face of rising inequality, public-sector austerity, and regressive tax reforms. It traces how successive election defeats drove a process of political learning, which came to revolve around the effort to reassure floating voters that a Labour government could control tax, spending and borrowing. The 1992 defeat seemed to demonstrate the difficulty of winning support for redistribution in the face of ‘tax bombshell’ attacks, and so paved the way for the more cautious and incremental fiscal politics of Gordon Brown and New Labour.
期刊介绍:
Since 1923, Historical Research has been a leading mainstream British historical journal. Its articles cover a wide geographical and temporal span: from the early middle ages to the twentieth century. It encourages the submission of articles from a broad variety of approaches, including social, political, urban, intellectual and cultural history.