two - Crosland: the socialist theoretician as hero

Summary

The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones. (J.M. Keynes, 19361)

The party appears to the outside observer to be less prepared in spirit for the many awkward problems which it will have to face as soon as it reaches office than it was even in 1945, when its whole task was enormously simplified by the existence of a comprehensive set of wartime controls and a lot of civil servants sitting ready in their offices with long experience of working them. (Andrew Shonfield, 19602)

The revisionist case against more statist versions of socialism was not new: its combination of reason, passion, and parliamentary gradualism had been present within the British Labour Party from the start, for passion could as well inspire parliamentary gradualism as anti-parliamentarianism. (Brian Harrison, 20093)

Introduction

Anthony Crosland has been an iconic figure for generations of British social democrats; next to Aneurin Bevan he was ‘the most exciting Labour politician of the twentieth century’. His writings conveyed the qualities of political relevance and intellectual élan that were in short supply in the British Labour party. Crosland had exceptional abilities ensuring that he stood out as Labour’s pre-eminent ‘scholar-politician’. This chapter charts the highs and lows of his career against the rise and fall of British social democracy. There were prolonged periods in which Crosland’s career stagnated, particularly following Wilson’s ascent to the leadership in 1963. During the 1970s, Croslandite social democracy was imperilled: its political economy was disintegrating in the face of global financial pressures; revisionism had little to say about the surge of Celtic nationalism and the incipient crisis of the British state. After defeat in 1979, the party moved sharply to the Left; in its ‘wilderness years’, Labour regressed by attempting to revive an outdated state socialism centred on nationalisation and the siege economy. Nonetheless, Crosland ensured later generations understood the necessity of updating the party’s identity following profound changes in the social structure of Britain.

This chapter assesses his legacy as a socialist politician and intellectual: there are two essential themes. The first is Crosland’s life and career, providing a biographical overview of how his ideological beliefs emerged, the wavering fortunes of his experience as a minister, and his relationship with significant political developments after the war.