A number of commentators in the 1980s sought to explain the character of the Thatcher administration. By contrast, relatively little work has been produced that seeks to analyse the principles and governing strategies of the Blair government. Focusing primarily on economic management, this article offers a characterisation of statecraft under Blair in terms of the politics of depoliticisation. In summary, it argues that the Blair government has fused aspects of traditional economic management with new initiatives to create a powerful tool of governing organised on the basis of the principle of depoliticisation. Depoliticisation as a governing strategy is the process of placing at one remove the political character of decision-making. State managers retain arm's-length control over crucial economic and social processes whilst simultaneously benefiting from the distancing effects of depoliticisation. As a form of politics it seeks to change market expectations regarding the effectiveness and credibility of policymaking in addition to shielding the government from the consequences of unpopular policies.A quick survey of the history of 'governing Britain' in the twentieth century is apt to reveal that, despite much rhetoric, governments are unable to solve the fundamental problems that beset the British economy (the relative productivity problem, the decline of the staple industries, recurrent inflationary pressure, the 'boom and bust' cycle). 1 This was well recognised by Jim Bulpitt, who argued that the aim of government is to achieve, in the eyes of the public, a level of governing competence, and
This article places the study of depoliticisation within a framework that highlights the crisis-ridden character of capitalist development. It suggests that by linking depoliticisation to the activities of state managers engaged in crisis management, the concept scores highly in terms of clarity and precision over more expansive uses that lack a cutting edge and result in the assertion that ‘depoliticisation is everywhere’. In a context characterised by the continued crisis of global capital it is argued that the politicisation of social relations threatens the basis not only of individual governments but of the liberal capitalist form of the state itself.
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