The Third Ways Ideology In Britain

The terce authoritys Ideology In BritainIn this essay I would be discussing how The tierce modes ideologies have affected the development of Social Policy inside Britain. I will be concentrating on their success and sorrow by comparing it policies with other the political ideology of The raw(a) Right and The Old Left. I will be focusing on three of the Third flair policies which are Social, Welfare State and Health PolicyThe Third Way is an ideology strongly put uped by Tony Blair and the then America prexy Bill Clinton. Soon after the presidential election in America, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown travelled to America to meet Bill Clinton. They all realise that the share a lot of things in common particularly the philosophy of John Macmurray and this was how The Third Way came into exis exce.In the 1997 travail pronunciamento Tony Blair claimed that new approach necessarily to be given to all area of each policy which would be different from both The Social Democratic an d The New Right. ( push back Party 1997a). The Third Way was meant to be a form of renewal for Social Democracy just the other parties view it as non-ideological theory without much fact to stand on. Tony Blair describes The Third Way as authority of updating the welfare state to fit in into the 21st century by given the state and the community a happen to make a different.In my view, I believe that The Third Way is all about empowerment and given opportunities and elan out to the poor especially the less privileged groups which includes lone parents families, unemployed, disables and pensioners by haveing them into getting jobs and developing their independent skills. The Third Way focused principal(prenominal)ly on ending meagerness by making it clear to the society that work is the quickest way out of poverty.From my research I fecal matter argue that The Third Way is a bit different from both The New Right and The Old Left, for instance The Old Left put more focus on th e deli actually of means but putting less emphasis on how it would be delivered and not quantity outcome while The New Right are more into trip public services which leads to increase in poverty level and making it difficult for muckle to find a way out. The Third Way can similarly be described as a means of modernising the approach to politics whilst h ageding on to its major elementary determine.One of the aims of The Third Way is to create awareness to the society on how to overcome poverty by providing access to education for all ages and providing training and apprenticeship. This is an example of Giddens view of The Third Way as I quote investing in human capital wherever possible rather than the direct provision of economic maintenance. In conduct of welfare state we should put the social investment state, operating in the context of a positive welfare society. (Giddens, 1998 p177).Tony Blair was very famous for this quote a hand up rather than a hand out (Tony Blair) l eads me to explain the four main values of The Third WayThe four key values of The Third wayThe value of a community Unlike Margaret Thatcher who doesnt think that there is a society as I quote thither is no such thing as society there are individual men and women, and there are families. The New cranch was not in support of this and they believe that it was very consequential to provide a service that reflects the needs of the community.Commitment to equal opportunity Deprivation needs to be addressed and it must(prenominal) not be seen as an excuse for failing to provide opportunities. For example, whether it is the absence of a GPs surgery on a council estate or uncontrolled wickedness or poor house or failing schools the theory is that the cycle of deprivation can be broken by the community.Emphasis on responsibleness It is very important that an individual takes adequate responsibility for their actions especially the socially excluded group. For example, the governmen t will support those who want to give up smoking but they also need to do their own part by participating in the service provided.Accountability More effort needs to put into measuring outcome as it plays a major role in finding out if a policy is working and how it can be improved. Services needs to be provided in the best way possible and monitored and service provided needs to be held accountable for the success and failure of their service.In the next pages I would be evaluating the policies of The Third Way by comparing them to the other parties policies and focusing on which on what works and what could have been done differently.PoliciesHousing PolicyAt the condemnation of Margaret Thatcher under the Conservative government, welfare state went through a lot of transformation especially in the area of housing policy which makes it very important for the other parties coming into power to acknowledge the changes.Going back to the beginning of the 19th century around 1918 to b e precise, the war just ended and the main needs that was identified was housing due to soldiers returning home from war into extreme housing conditions. The government then decided to set up programmes of grammatical construction new properties. By the end of 1919 government used part of the income tax to fund projects managed by the councils and making sure that rents are made affordable and inwardly reason.From the conservatives manifesto of 1979, emphasis was laid into helping families own their homes. They identified that a lot of families would like the idea of owning their own home but they finds it difficult to advertize the deposit for a mortgage or prevented from doing so under the local authority and the dig up government. The Conservatives decided that it was the right time to remove all these restrictions by given council tenants the Right to Buy their homes.The right to buy came into movement on 3rd October 1980. Council tenants were allowed to buy their homes. Th e New Right manifesto made an obligation to lay in Right to Buy this gives secured council tenants of more than 3 years the right to buy their homes at a heavily discounted price. The policy entitled tenants to buy their homes at a minimum discount of 33% of market value of the house and 44% for flats. But there is a clause to the policy that emphasised that if the property is resold within 3 years, some of the discount should/must be repaid to the local authority.This idea became very popular and it was one of the ideas that were identified with the conservatives. At the beginning the Labour political party was not in support of the right to buy due to the fact that there will be financial consequences and the effect it would have on the stay tenants.But by 1985 the sale of property has increased tremendously as shown in the table belowThis table shows Public sector new housing completions and Right to Buy sales in Britain (1980-95)Housing completions(000s)Right to Buy sales(000s )1980198119821983198419851986198719881989199019911992199319941995866637353427232020181710532218220014210394911061641861297565616751Source Wilcox (1997)By the time the labour party comes into power in 1997, the right to buy scheme has relax down and they decided to reduce the discount. Labour sees this as a failure be front two thirds of the families that bought their property under the Right to Buy within the last ten years have accumulated huge mortgage arrears, negative equity and a huge way outs of homes have been repossessed because families were unable to make payment.During the term of Mrs Thatcher the number of homeless household increased tremendously and it also leads to the economic recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Labour party stated in their 1997 manifesto as I quote .the Conservatives lack of housing strategy has led to the virtual abandonment of social housing, the growth of homelessness...The Labour Party made it their priority to address what causes the housing market to collapse. They decided that the council should use the money they received from the sale of property should be used to build new properties and keeping the old ones up to the level of decent homes. The local authorities would be asked to give priority to families of individuals who are homeless but not by their own fault.In my view The New Right are more in support of quick solution but dont always consider the long time effect the housing policy would have on the welfare state while Labours Third Way focused on outcome and prevention. Labour also lays a lot of emphasis on what was the cause and how best to tackle the situation. In regards to the Right to Buy in my opinion it was used by the Conservatives as a way of controlling people i.e. if you have a mortgage you will think twice before qualifying on strike or travel out of a job due to the responsibility and mortgage commitment while Labour demeanors at how to help people keep up their quittance and l aying out prevention if things goes wrong. I believe that the Right to Buy was a erect idea initially but the way it was implemented may be a bit wrong however during the term of Mrs Thatcher the housing market improved a lot.Social Welfare PolicyThe new Labour focused on issues faced by the poor i.e. lone parent families, disables, unemployed and pensioners. The Conservatives focused on the idea that individuals performs better when market forces are unleashed (Martin Hewitt). The initiation of the New dish out as part of Labours welfare put right programme is seen as a positive outcome than Conservatives achievement on the workfare welfare. Tony Blair implies that there has been no truly comprehensive review of the welfare state in all its elements since the Beveridge (DSS, 1918a, p iii).The New preserve was introduced in January 1998 and it main focus was to provide support for the poor and less privileged people in the society. At the time there was a rise in people claimi ng incapacity benefit (1.85 millions) and unemployment has also rise especially in young people (80000).When the New Deal was first introduced many politicians opposed to it and some up till now because they believes that people out of work should be neglected. But since the introduction of the New deal more than 1.8 million people have benefited and got into employment and training. Over the last 10 years 300000 lone parents are back in work and this is a great way of reducing child poverty.As of now, the New Deal is going through reformation in other to be able to continue to tackle the problems of employment by helping people to develop their skills. The New Deal runs programmes for young people ages 18-25 claiming jobseekers allowance (JSA) for more than 6 months. The programme will help them develop skills which would increase their chance of getting into work.In July 1998 the New Deal introduces another programme for people aged 25 and above concentrating mainly on people clai ming JSA for over 2 years. Each claimant would be given a personal adviser that helps them to identify their strength and weakness. It helps them develop and recognise the skills and experience they may already have and empower them to build on it to create opportunities for jobs.New Deal works in partnership voluntary and occult sector to delivering it services and according to research the New Deal programme has been the most booming innovation of the Labour party. Due to the current recession, unemployment figures have risen again.The Conservatives government inherited a welfare state that minimised fraud rather than maximised work (Peck, Workfare 273). There focus was to restrict eligibility and reduce replacement ratio from 43% in 1972 to 16% (Peck, Workfare 284).Health PolicyThe National Health Service (NHS) was created by the Labour Party more than 60 years ago. When Labour came out of power in May 1979, the NHS was in a good and stable place with good performance outcome o n financial structure. The Conservatives were not in support of the idea at the beginning. There was an expectation that it would be dissolved when Margaret Thatcher came into power in 1979 but this failed to happen as stated in her 1979 manifesto I have no intention of pull down the health service than in dismantling Britains defence (Margaret Thatcher 1979). However the government aims to bring in competence and competition into healthcare market. By allowing hospitals and GPs to compete for funding. They informed health authorities to use private companies where possible i.e. private companies would compete on who could be responsible for the hospital laundry or catering. Others ways hospitals can raise funds under the Conservatives includes lease out space to florist, sweet shops, charging foreign patients for their health care and many more. The New Right were all about privatisation and commercialisation while The Third way is in favour of modernising and providing quality s ervice that would be accountable to the community. Labour plans to stop the privatisation of the NHS in their 1992 manifesto but the lost to the Conservatives during the election.In my view it is very difficult to conclude which government policy on the NHS has actually works, the quality of care have improved under both governments especially around the time lag time for patients however issues surrounding increase in funding and performance target plus lack of good performance outcome can be challenged. I believe that both parties lays good legacy for the NHS and whether their policy work or not they all share the same ideas on some levels. The Third Way, The New Right and The Old Left all have policies focusing on the quasi market.Law and Order PolicyOne of the biggest challenge the Labour party faced law and order. The conservative party were seen as a Party of law and order (Sarah Charman and Stephen P. Savage). On the day that the Conservatives worn the general election in 19 79 Margaret Thatcher stated What the country needs is less tax and more law and order (Savage, 1990). The Tories believes that tougher approach needs to be taken and they made a commitment to increase police numbers and power to put an end to crime by waging war against it. New sentences were introduced to the court targeting young offenders new prisons were make to deal with the problem of prison shortages.James Callaghan stated that the roots of crime are still social deprivation, broken homes and all the rest (Labour Home Secretary, 1970). The Labour party manifesto elaborate their main concern for future action this includes quick sentence for young continual offenders, clean-up on petty crimes and neighbourhood disorder, reform the Crown Prosecution Service, crime prevention and more police patrolling the streets. The Labour party realised that in other to tackle crime they needs to look intoIt is hard to establish the success or failure of law and order policy in Britain, La bour appears to be tough on crime and the cause of crime while the Conservatives acknowledged that dramatic short-term improvement is needed. I can only come to one conclusion that Tony Blairs government was more focused on been tougher on crime that both The New Right and The Old Left.