Politics Is for People - Williams, Shirley
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If we are to enhance the quality of life, a bold new approach to politics is needed that takes into consideration the economic realities of the 1980s. Shirley Williams, a founder of the new British Social Democratic Party, former Labourite and government minister, outlines her blueprint for action in this forthright and intelligent book.
Traditional institutions in both capitalist and communist systems are cracking under the stresses of advanced industrialism, Williams contends. The sturdy structures once responsible for economic abundance, emergent class interests, and political responses…mehr

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Produktbeschreibung
If we are to enhance the quality of life, a bold new approach to politics is needed that takes into consideration the economic realities of the 1980s. Shirley Williams, a founder of the new British Social Democratic Party, former Labourite and government minister, outlines her blueprint for action in this forthright and intelligent book.

Traditional institutions in both capitalist and communist systems are cracking under the stresses of advanced industrialism, Williams contends. The sturdy structures once responsible for economic abundance, emergent class interests, and political responses are now in disrepair. Even the impressive postwar economic and social achievements are jeopardized by scarce energy and the unmet educational needs of high technology. Policymakers and citizens in the West can no longer assume that full employment, or a wide range of social services, or good industrial relations are achievable unless there is a quantum leap in our political thinking.

What Williams wants and is working toward is a government that is limited, accountable, and able to be superseded when it forfeits popular support. The welfare state, furthermore, needs to be reformed to allow for more participation. She calls for the devolution of power and decentralization in government, big business, and unions. In three sweeping proposals, she suggests a ten year plan to bring the welfare state into the future, a Marshall Plan to assist the Third World, and greater disarmament after a period of successful detente.

Williams' words ring with harsh truths and tangible needs. She challenges us with her own declaration of intent: "The old politics is dying. The battle to decide what the new politics will be like is just beginning. It is possible, just possible, that it will be a politics for people."
Autorenporträt
Williams Shirley: Shirley Williams is one of the founding members of the newly formed Social Democratic Party in Great Britain, which now already commands the loyalty of about a third of the voters. Before she broke with the Labour Party, in which she was a member of the National Executive, she served in the House of Commons and in a number of ministerial posts, including those of Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection and Secretary of State for Education and Science. In 1979-1980 she was the Godkin Lecturer at Harvard University, and in 1980 she was Rede Lecturer at the University of Cambridge.
Rezensionen
Shirley Williams is probably the most prominent and certainly the most admired of the people who are founding a new Social Democratic Party in Britain which they hope will bring about a fundamental realignment of politics. This book is not only an event in British politics,.. it is also a lucid, thoughtful, and informed analysis of the problems of the contemporary welfare state not only in Britain, but also in other Western Countries, especially the United States... I am reminded of Lester Thurow's recent book, The Zero Sum Society, which takes up some of the same problems and from a similar point of view... Mrs. Thatcher has often said 'There is no alternative' and partisans of the American welfare state have recently been confronted with the same challenge. This book is one of the first thoughtful replies.