Egalitarian Thought and Labour Politics: Retreating Visions

InEgalitarian Thought and Labour PoliticsNicholas Ellison argues that the concept of equality is the cornerstone of the British socialist tradition, and organizing principle of the Labour Party's socialist thought. This book examines the alternative understandings of equality which have divided the Labour Party since 1930, tracing the origin of the current shift away from concern for social and economic equality to an increasing emphasis on race and gender politics. Nicholas Ellison identifies three competing appraches to equality, each rooted in a particular tradition of thought and a distinct faction of the party, and he examines the struggle between these divergent ideologies in the party's attempt to define its socialist ideals.

Nicholas Ellison is Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Durham.