Labor and globalisation: from Keating to Latham

The Ties that Unwind? Social Democratic Parties and Unions in Australia and Britain

“…154 His FPLP colleagues largely share his pessimistic assessment of the consequences of globalisation for state intervention. 155 As was noted earlier, there are serious fl aws in this approach to globalisation, with its ignorance of the fact that many Hawke and Keating Government policies -such as fi nancial deregulation, liberalisation of foreign investment rules and freer trade -helped to bring about the process of globalisation that apparently presents such strong challenges for reformists. Nevertheless, while Labor politicians ruminate so pessimistically on the consequences of globalisation, the prospects of a return to a more traditional social democratic policy approach that would provide succour to the unions but also imply a more welcome place for them in the political considerations of party leaders, seem slim.…”

Social Democrats and NEO-Liberalism: A Case Study of the Australian Labor Party

“…Mark Latham commented recently that since ‘the fall of the Berlin Wall we've [social democrats] had trouble redefining ourselves’ (Latham, 2003, p. 12). The result is that even parties such as Labor, for whom the market was once seen as an object in need of control and regulation, now accept Margaret Thatcher's famous dictum that there is no alternative (Lavelle, 2004).…”