Labour Under Corbyn

Constraints on Radical Politics in the UK

Prapimphan Chiengkul

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9783030602611
• eBook ISBN: 9783030602628
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Economy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book provides an accessible yet critical analysis of the Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn (?2015-2020) in the context of the contemporary British political economy. Itanalyses structural constraints on left-wing politics and evaluates the transformative potential of Labour's economic and social policies under Corbyn.

Drawing from a neo-Marxist and neo-Gramscian framework, the book argues that the material, institutional and ideological conditions before 2015 opened political space for a left-wing Labour Party, although the dominant historical structures severely limited its chance of coming to power. In addition, the book argues that Labour under Corbyn should not be dismissed as 'populist', and that its policies aimed to redress structural economic problems, promote economic democracy and tackle contemporary challenges. The book also highlights the importance of adopting a long-term approach to counter-hegemonic political struggle so as not to shrink the space for progressive politics.

© The Author(s) 2021

P. ChiengkulLabour Under Corbynhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60262-8_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Prapimphan Chiengkul¹

(1)

Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

The chapter provides an overview of the book. It discusses the methodological and theoretical framework, which draws on neo-Marxist and neo-Gramscian perspectives. A summary of the book’s main arguments and a chapter outline are also provided.

Keywords

CorbynCoxian critical theoryNeo-GramscianNeo-MarxistEroding capitalismState autonomy

End Abstract

Labour Under Corbyn: An Overview

After its defeat in the 2015 General Election, one might expect the Labour Party to shift ‘right’ along the political spectrum to attract more voters, according to the prevailing Downsian political common sense of the day. Therefore, it was a surprise when Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong left-wing backbencher, won the Labour leadership election in late 2015, aided by strong grassroots groups that helped his campaign. Corbyn was heavily criticised by mainstream media and also by Labour members of parliament (MPs) who were dismayed by the party’s shift to the left. Labour under Corbyn proposed to reorient the economy to serve progressive socio-environmental goals and bring about an egalitarian transformation of society. Labour did unexpectedly well in the 2017 General Election; the party achieved a large increase in its vote share comparable to that which saw Labour’s Clement Attlee become Prime Minister after the Second World War. Nevertheless, the rise to power of a left-wing government in the UK, a deeply conservative country, was undermined by various structural constraints. By the end of 2019 the Corbyn project was in terminal decline; Labour’s position on Brexit, strategic political challenges from the Right, and Corbyn’s unpopularity, amongst other factors, contributed to Labour’s devastating defeat in the December General Election, which was characterised by many seat losses in the so-called Labour ‘heartlands’. Corbyn stepped down as leader in April 2020 whilst Labour members engaged in tense debates about the party’s future direction.

Inspired by these developments, as well as by scholarly debates on the Labour Party and the prospect of ‘parliamentary socialism’, this book aims to provide an accessible yet critical analysis of the Labour Party under Corbyn’s leadership in the context of contemporary British political economy. It attempts to: (1) explore the socio-politico-economic development in the UK that finally led in 2015 to the resurgence of radical left-wing politics in the Labour Party; (2) analyse structural limitations on left-wing politics, the prospect of a radical Labour government gaining power, and the transformative potential of Labour’s economic and social policies under Corbyn. Given ongoing discussions about the future direction of the Labour Party, it is more important than ever to reflect not only on the immediate causes that led to Labour’s defeat in the 2019 General Election, but also on structural constraints on left-wing politics and democratic socialism.

The following section discusses the methodological and theoretical framework of the book, which draws on neo-Marxist and neo-Gramscian perspectives. A summary of the book’s main arguments and a chapter outline are also provided in this chapter.

Methodological and Theoretical Approach

This book adopts a qualitative research approach and relies on primary sources such as statistics, and also a wide range of secondary sources such as books, academic journals, Labour Party publications and reports by non-governmental organisations. Its underlying epistemological stance is that of critical realism; whilst subscribing to a foundationalist ontological position and the idea that structures constrain and facilitate agents, the study in this book also gives importance to how agents interpret reality and shape these structures (Marsh et al. 2018, 193–194). Moreover, the book follows Marsh’s dialectical approach to the relationships between structure and agency, where material and ideational structures ‘provide the context within which agents act’ and can also have effects on agents even though they are not conscious of them (Marsh 2018, 207). Agents have their own preferences/objectives and interpretations of context, which shape their actions and the structures in an ‘interactive and iterative’ manner (Marsh 2018, 207–208).

The book also broadly adopts Robert W. Cox’s critical theory approach, which commits to exploring the possibilities of a different future. Based on historical analyses, critical theory seeks to clarify what are feasible alternative transformations that serve as ‘a guide to strategic action for bringing about an alternative order’ (Cox 1981, 130). Similar to approaches adopted by Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci, Coxian critical theory subscribes to historical materialism and focuses on the dialectical process at the level of real history, which enables the study of how contradictions and opposed social forces may give rise to change and alternative developmental paths (Cox 1981, 133–134). Overall, the book draws inspiration from Cox’s conceptualisation of social forces, historical structures and the possibility for transformative radical change. However, to enhance this framework, the book also draws on various neo-Gramscian and neo-Marxist writings, as well as from relevant critical political economic writings, to analyse the Labour Party’s prospects of advancing a radical left-wing political agenda in the UK, as the following paragraphs briefly discuss.

First of all, it is important to ask whether the Labour Party should be viewed as an agent that could advance a radical political economic agenda in the UK, given that many neo-Marxists have warned of the limitations of using the state to advance anti-capitalist and socialist causes. In the 1970s, the famous debate between Ralph Miliband and Nicos Poulantzas on the nature of the state (see Miliband 1969, 1973; Poulantzas 1976) raised important questions about how, in addition to state managers’ generally sympathetic stance to the capitalist status quo (the ‘instrumentalist’ perspective associated with Miliband), there are deep structural constraints that limit the state from pursuing options that contradict capitalist interests, which means that changes in state personnel will not simply bring about radical transformation of capitalist society (the ‘structuralist’ perspective associated with Poulantzas).¹ There are some contemporary left-wing scholars, however, who have argued that capturing the state to advance socialist agenda should not be ruled out. For example, whilst accepting that there are elements of truth in both Miliband’s and Poulantzas’ theories of the state, Coates (2013) argued that left-leaning political parties could use the state to manage the capitalist economy in favour of the labouring class, and also to instigate social redistribution and institutional reforms (Coates 2013, 50). Drawing from Poulantzas’ work on the democratic road to socialism (Poulantzas 1978) and Panitch and Gindin (2017) also pointed to the importance of institutional reforms, particularly that of democratising state apparatuses to support alternative ways of organising the economy, such as by supporting collective property rights and further socialisation of the economy (Panitch and Gindin 2017, 178–182). For Poulantzas (1978), the central concern of the democratic road to socialism was how to combine social struggles within and outside the state in order to radically transform the state, its apparatuses and representative democracy, as well as promote direct democracy and self-management bodies in a comprehensive manner (Poulantzas 1978, 79, 83–86).

Chapter 2 expands on the discussion above by exploring academic debates on the Labour Party and the possibility of parliamentary socialism in the UK. Chapters 3 and 4 also draw on the work of Erik Olin Wright (2010, 2019) to help analyse the transformative potential of Labour’s policies under Corbyn. Wright (2010) argued that the state should be seen as ‘a hybrid structure’ containing contradictory non-capitalist and (predominantly) capitalist elements (Wright 2010, 190), and that it is an important site of struggle to push for transformative social change. This, however, does not mean that bottom-up practices to challenge capitalism should be ignored, but that the state could be used to widen space for bottom-up initiatives (Wright 2019, 64). Having ‘civil society-based collective actors’ and progressive political parties working together to ‘erode capitalism’ (Wright 2019, 121), as well as encouraging these collective efforts (Wright 2019, 142–143), is also important.

As discussed previously, the book also uses a Coxian critical political economy approach to enrich its analyses on the nature of the state, the constraints imposed on the state by the global capitalist system, and the prospect of transformative radical change. Cox (1981) argued that agents cannot act absolutely freely as their actions are situated within ‘a framework of action’ or ‘historical structures’ that can be studied through a historical approach. It is further recognised that this ‘framework of action’—‘a particular combination of thought patterns, material conditions and human institutions which has a certain coherence among its elements’—changes over time and that critical theory’s central concern is to explore these changes (Cox 1981, 135). To analyse the current historical structures that are constraining the actions of individuals, the Coxian approach takes into account configurations of three main forces: material capabilities, ideas and institutions. It also introduces a dialectical element by studying emerging rival structures or configurations of forces that could lead to alternatives (Cox 1981, 135–136). On this issue, Marsh’s dialectical approach to the relationships between ‘the material’ and ‘the ideational’ provides supportive insight, as it highlights how both the material and the ideational constrain the actions of agents, and affirms that material reality does affect the effectiveness of narratives (Marsh 2018, 210–211).

Cox is famous for using his historical structures approach to study how the world order came about, and how it might change and be transformed through the interactions of social forces, forms of state and world orders (Cox 1981, 141). This may not appear relevant to the study of British political economy. However, the relevant insight from Cox is that social forces, forms of state and world orders are interconnected and that at each level dominant and rival structures of the three main forces—material capabilities, ideas and institutions—continue to operate (Cox 1981, 137–138). This is useful in the book’s conceptualisation of how competing social forces could give rise to a different form o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Labourism and Structural Constraints Before 2015
• 3. Labour Under Corbyn (2015–2020)
• 4. Labour’s Policies to Transform the British Political Economy
• 5. Conclusion
• Back Matter