Article
Details
Citation
Kippin S (2021) The Co-operative Party and New Labour: a study of policy entrepreneur influence. British Politics. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41293-021-00196-2
Abstract
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.
Keywords
Co-operative Party; Labour Party; Policy entrepreneurs; Multiple Streams Analysis; New Labour; Mutualism; Co-operative Schools
Notes
Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Online
Journal
British Politics
Status | In Press |
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Publication date online | 29/10/2021 |
Date accepted by journal | 13/10/2021 |
URL | http://hdl.handle.net/1893/33560 |
Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
ISSN | 1746-918X |
eISSN | 1746-9198 |
People (1)
Senior Lecturer, Politics