The End of Politics

Jacket text for The End of Politics

New Labour's distinctive idea is that equality and efficiency are partners, not enemies. This, the book argues, is an example of managerialist ideology - the belief that trade-offs between conflicting values can be managed away by clever policies, that management can replace politics.

This is not true. New Labour's main economic policies - tax credits, the minimum wage, expanding higher education and promoting macroeconomic stability - have not removed the trade-off between equality and efficiency. However, the failure of managerialism is not merely a failure of particular
policies. There are deeper flaws in it. It fails to recognize the multiple and conflicting meanings of the ideals of equality and efficiency. And it assumes that governments have knowledge and rationality that are in fact unattainable.

The book is a plea to remove managerialism, and replace it with genuine politics. We should ditch the idea that a central elite can manage away social problems, and instead debate about conflicting ideals.

Chapter headings for The End of Politics

1. New Labour and Managerialism
What is New Labour? What is managerialism?

2. A Trojan Horse
Why globalization doesn't justify putting the "new" into New Labour

3. The Problem of Profits
How old Labour failed to reconcile equality and efficiency

4. Making Work Pay
The economics of tax credits

5. The First Rule of Economics
Do minimum wages cut poverty without destroying jobs?

6. "The Best Economic Policy There Is"
Will increased education increase equality and economic growth?

7. "The Best Thing That Any Government Can Do"
What is macroeconomic stability? Why is it good?

8. A Free Lunch
The strange benefits of central bank independence

9. What's Wrong With New Labour?
Equality, trade-offs, managerialism and virtues

10. No Matter of Congratulation
Why economic growth shouldn't be a policy target

11. Some Defunct Philosopher
The many meanings of efficiency

12. A Wild Goose Chase
Why is equality desirable? Why is it unattainable?

13. The Rituals of Reason
Why we all act irrationally

14. The Idle Slave of the Passions
Why rationality isn�t rational

15. Conclusion

Index

About Chris Dillow

Chris Dillow was educated at Oxford and Manchester Universities, and spent several years as an economist in the City, before becoming economics writer at the Investors Chronicle. He blogs at http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com

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