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Brexit has been considered as the vote of a « white working class » by a significant part of the media, politicians, and academics. This expression became rapidly mainstream despite its atypical construction. One can reflect upon this new rhetorical category, different from the traditional notion of “working class”, and is implicitly but clearly construed first and foremost in opposition to non-white workers, and not to the « bourgeoisie » or the middle-class. Brexit is also largely presented as the expression of strong Eurosceptic and anti-immigration opinions supposedly prevalent in the « white working class ». This paper aims at understanding how these assumptions about the « white working class » and its claims developed in British political discourse to the point of being a crucial topic during the Brexit discussions. The focus of this paper is a discursive analysis of the British traditional parties in power, in the context of what has been called a « white Vincent LATOUR2022-09-01T22:56:00VLbacklash », triggered by multiculturalism. The period considered starts in 1997 with the election of New Labour on a multiculturalist agenda. The second term of Tony Blair in 2001 Vincent LATOUR2022-09-01T22:57:00VLwas a watershed moment, because it was then that he clearly turned against the previously multiculturalist agenda of his party. Since then, both the Labour and the Conservative parties have nurtured the theme of the « white working class » as left behind Vincent LATOUR2022-09-01T23:02:00VLby multiculturalism. This idea reached its pinnacle with Brexit in 2016, with lasting effects until 2019, when the Conservatives won by a landslide on an agenda focused on restoring the place of the « white working class ». This paper aims at showing the convergence of both parties around the rejection of multiculturalism and the defence of this newly construced section of the population, which led to the shift of British political discourse towards the right, with the promotion of the British identity as essentially « white ».

This paper explores the emergence of and policies and practices underpinning ‘social enterprise’ in Britain: that is, the concept that businesses could provide social services and benefits while returning profits to those who have invested in them. This paper argues that, in Britain, the concept was massaged into existence and adopted as a business and policy model at a particular historical juncture, in the later 1990s and early 2000s. The process involved a careful interweaving of linguistic maneuvers with financial calculations both at the level of specific businesses and at that of political regimes. This process is traced here with reference to a specific organization, the Big Issue, and a particular policy regime, introduced by the New Labour government between 1997 and 2005. For the former, the transition from business activity focused on the Big Issue magazine to brokering activities for the “social enterprise” sector generally is tracked. The New Labour government’s concurrent focus on “social exclusion” and rearticulation of terms denoting sectors providing public services are traced. Thus, light is thrown on the relationship between the strategic terminology deployed at the ground-level of business operations and the top-down level of governmental policy and welfare restructuring in this period.

The Co-operative Party, which represents the interests and ideas of the co-operative movement in British politics, has been the sister party of UK Labour since 1927. Largely ignored by scholarship, it has been on occasion the third-largest party grouping in the House of Commons and represents a social movement with formal members numbering in the millions. The unusual Labour/Co-operative relationship was tested during the New Labour period, with the Co-operative Party gradually establishing itself as a trusted sidekick and a source of policy ideas, despite some initial tensions. This article examines two historical instances where the party proved decisive in influencing public policy; the “Thomas Bill” in 2001–2002, and the creation of Co-operative Schools during the 2007–2010 Brown premiership. In each case, the activities of Co-operative Party-linked ‘policy entrepreneurs’ were key in the manufacture and exploitation of ‘windows of opportunity’ for policy change. The paper makes two core conclusions, one empirical: that the Co-operative Party was able to influence New Labour’s public policy direction in keeping with its founding objectives. The second is theoretical: that recent trends in Multiple Streams Analysis are reinforced, and that in smaller policy ‘subsystems’, skilled policy entrepreneurs can play a greater role in the creation of windows of opportunity for policy change than the original theory implies.

The 1970s were a decade of transition on the European Left, characterised by intellectual ferment and ideological diversity. For Western European communists specifically, the 1970s saw the emergence of Eurocommunism, a major attempt to advance the cause of socialism in advanced industrialised countries. This process ended abruptly in 1989-1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which represented a major and, in many ways, terminal crisis for European communism. This thesis examines the transformation and decline of European communism from the perspective of intellectual engagement. It looks at the life and work of the historian Eric Hobsbawm in the period from 1978 – when he gave his controversial lecture entitled ‘The Forward March of Labour Halted?’ – to his death in 2012. It explores different political interventions and expressions of political commitment, not only in relation to Hobsbawm himself, but also in relation to other left-wing intellectuals. It uses a wide range of sources – including academic books, articles, journalistic articles and Hobsbawm’s private papers – and draws on scholarship on emotions, intellectual history, and comparative and biographical history. It begins by considering Hobsbawm’s political interventions on the British Left from 1978 through the 1980s. I argue that his calls for modernisation of the Labour Party were not as a precursor to New Labour, but rather a response to the political crisis of European communism in the 1970s. This was typified by a tension that had long been a feature of communist involvement in left-wing “popular fronts”, namely the necessity of stymieing the advance of the right while simultaneously promoting the cause of communism. Then, I discuss Hobsbawm’s experience of communism after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I argue that he suffered from ‘the melancholia of the October Revolution’, where he revalorised and idealised his communist experiences from the 1930s and 1940s. At the same time, I compare Hobsbawm’s Age of Extremes (published in 1994) with other similar works. This reveals different left-wing visions of the twentieth century and how these were shaped by distinct understandings and temporalities of their respective political projects. Subsequently, I look at the role of autobiography, with special reference to Hobsbawm’s memoir Interesting Times (2002). I explore the tensions faced by communists in the 1990s and early 2000s, who had to come to terms with the failure of the political project to which they belonged. In much of the commemorative literature about Hobsbawm, he has been mythologised as a unique historian, while his communist commitments have been either downplayed or sensationalised. I deconstruct this myth and show that he was no different from other communist intellectuals at the time, all of whom had to grapple with their lost faith. Finally, I look at the transformation of Hobsbawm’s public persona at the very end of his life when he took on the role of an “activist historian” who opposed US imperialism. In the process, Hobsbawm reframed his political identity as “post-communist” and adapted to the new geopolitical configurations of the 21st century. Taken together, these different perspectives on Hobsbawm’s later career illuminate the complex history of communism in Europe in the past half century. From Eurocommunism, though his interventions in British politics in the eighties, to the re-imagination of antifascism in the 1990s and early 2000s, his passion for communism and the cause it promised defined his commitment. For Hobsbawm, communism was a morally and ethically valid cause, regardless of the fate of the Soviet Union or the success of Communist parties in Europe and beyond.

Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, neue Ideen für die Sozialdemokratie des 21. Jahrhunderts zu entwerfen. Diese politische Richtung hat in Österreich verschiedenste Entwicklungen durchgemacht. Von der Sozialdemokratischen Arbeiterpartei, geteilt in den austromarxistischen Flügel unter Otto Bauer und den moderaten Flügel unter Karl Renner bis zur sozialistischen Partei unter Bruno Kreisky in den 1970er Jahren, bis zur heutigen Sozialdemokratischen Partei unter Pamela Rendi-Wagner. In Wien ist durch diese Strömungen unter anderem die Stadtarchitektur massiv beeinflusst worden, und die österreichische Sozialdemokratie vermochte es, sich mit ihrer Sozialpolitik als ein Vorbild für andere Städte zu positionieren. Nach dem Verbot durch den austrofaschistischen Ständestaat 1934 hat sich die Sozialdemokratie erst nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg als sozialistische Partei Österreichs wiedergründen können. Diese sozialistische Partei durchlief dann verschiedenste Perioden, wie etwa die unter den Kanzlern Bruno Kreisky sowie Franz Vranitzky (in seine Regierungszeit fiel auch die Umbenennung in Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreich (SPÖ)), Viktor Klima und Alfred Gusenbauer. Mittlerweile ist die Bewegung ein wenig in einer Sinnsuche gefangen und versucht sich sowohl organisatorisch als auch programmatisch neu aufzustellen. Mit den in dieser Arbeit dargelegten Ausführungen soll ein Einblick in die programmatische Materie der SPÖ geboten und dabei geholfen werden, einen Beitrag für eine Weiterentwicklung sozialdemokratischer Konzepte zu leisten. In einem kurzen Überblick werden die schon genannten Perioden sozialdemokratischer Regierungszeit beschrieben und ihre Eigenschaften und wichtigsten Persönlichkeiten dargestellt. Darauffolgend wird der Dritte Weg als Konzept aber auch als ideologische Vorstellung erläutert und seine Eigenheiten genannt. Die Thesen von Anthony Giddens, der das Konzept für Tony Blairs „New Labour“ geschrieben hat, wird die elementare theoretische Grundlage für diesen Teil sein. Die zentrale Forschungsfrage der Masterarbeit: Wie kann die „Theorie U“ in Verbindung mit der Programmatik des „Dritten Weges“ der Jahrtausendwende, programmatische und organisatorische Weiterentwicklungen für die Sozialdemokratie ermöglichen? Zusätzlich werden Interviews mit PolitikerInnen der Sozialdemokratie in die Arbeit einfließen, um aktuelle politische Erlebnisse oder Erfahrungen und Meinungen abzubilden. Anschließend sollen diese Thesen mit den österreichischen Begebenheiten und der Theorie U von Otto Scharmer in Verbindung gesetzt werden und daraus ein möglicher Ansatz für die Entwicklung der österreichischen Sozialdemokratie im 21. Jahrhundert aufzeigt werden. Einerseits wird das politische Konzept einer Symbiose von Wirtschaft und Sozialem, anderseits auch die Theorie U, welche besonders bei Unternehmen Anwendung findet, aufgegriffen. Damit soll versucht werden, ein besseres System beziehungsweise einen neuen Weg zu erarbeiten, mit dessen Hilfe die Sozialdemokratie zukünftig rasch auf gesellschaftliche und unvorhersehbare Veränderungen mit politischen Entscheidungen reagieren kann. Die Zielsetzung dieser Arbeit findet sich in dem Versuch, Vorschläge für ein Managementmodell und bessere Handlungsmaximen für die Sozialdemokratie des 21. Jahrhunderts zu entwickeln. In der Recherche zu dieser Arbeit hat sich gezeigt, dass eine gewisse Distanz zu den Ideen von Anthony Giddens bei sozialdemokratischen PolitikerInnen vorhanden ist, man jedoch mit der Theorie U Otto Scharmers wesentlich mehr anfangen kann. So stellt sich klar heraus, dass eine bessere Kommunikationsstrategie innerhalb der Partei vonnöten ist, und auch zwischen den verschiedenen Generationen. Programmatisch gesehen wird nur das in Österreich stark etablierte Kooperationsmodell zwischen ArbeitgeberInnen und ArbeitnehmerInnen als ein mögliches Positivum des Dritten Weges gesehen. Es ist festzuhalten, dass laut der Interviewten jede sozialdemokratische Politik auf der Basis des Sozialstaates, also Solidarität und öffentliche Daseinsvorsorge stattfinden muss. Eine Abkehr davon würde von den sozialdemokratischen Parteimitgliedern und WählerInnen nicht mehr mitgetragen werden. The aim of this thesis is to explore the development of ideas for a social democracy of the 21st century. There have been many stages of development of this political direction in Austria. It begins with the Social-Democratic Workers Party with its two wings, the Austro-Marxists under Otto Bauer and The Moderates under Victor Adler and then Karl Renner. He was the first Federal president of the Second Republic, it continues with the Socialistic Party under Bruno Kreisky in the 1970s, until today with the Social Democratic Party under Pamela Rendi-Wagner. In Vienna the local building architecture of the city has been heavily influenced by the absolute majority of social-democratic city government and the social security system has been widely seen as a role model. After the ban during the era of the austro-fascist corporate state the social democracy has not been able to restore the party until the end of the second world war as the socialist party of Austria. This reestablished Socialist Party has contributed to political stability in Austria through many periods of office under chancellors such as B. Kreisky, F. Vranitzky and VK (choose 3 - it sounds better). It was FV who changed the party's name to SPÖ. However, today the party is struggling with issues surrounding party policies and organization. Through analyzing the policy statements of SPÖ politicians this thesis will contribute to the literature regarding the application of social democratic theory in 21st century Austria. This will be achieved in two stages: first, I will give an overview of the different periods of social democracy in Austria, and thereby present the most important actors. Second, the importance of the so-called 'Third Way' as a political ideology will be examined, based on the thesis of Anthony Giddens, the example of 'New Labour' in the United Kingdom and also the government of Gerhard Schröder in Germany. The central research question of this thesis: To what extent can the policy program of the “Third Way” be used to inspire changes to party policy and organization in 21st century social democracy through use of the Theory U? To reflect contemporary political dialogue, I will also be using interviews with politicians from across the Austrian Social Democratic Party. My analysis of these will then be connected to the Austrian standards and the Theory U, so as to present a new approach for the development for the social democracy with the focus on Austria in the 21st century. The political concept of the symbiose of economy and social politics on the one hand and on the other hand the Theory U. Thus, this paper aims to present a better system that could be used by the social democratic movement not only in Austria but also on the basement of an international perspective in order to react faster in the face of new and unforeseen developments. During the field work of this thesis the interviewed persons of the Social Democratic Party showed a big distance to the ideas of Anthony Giddens. The Theory U written by Otto Scharmer was seen much more in a favorable way. Most of the interviewed persons admitted that also a new strategy of communication in the party and between the generations is needed. The third Way of Anthony Giddens has only one positivism, the cooperation model between employers and employees, which is already well-established in Austria. The future policy of the social democracy must be based on the principles of the welfare state. Leaving these principles would not be supported and accepted by the members of social democratic parties or the voters. Abweichender Titel laut Übersetzung der Verfasserin/des Verfassers Masterarbeit Wien, FH Campus Wien 2022