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  • I find this discussion really interesting - I'd not have thought Blair was what people mean by neoliberal (and it seems I'm not alone in that) but there are obviously lots of people who do think that's a fair description. I'd agree he doesn't reject capitalism but if he's neoliberal, how broadly is that really defined? Which countries could really be said not to be neoliberal by that definition?

  • I mainly think he was part of a neoliberal period, so singling him out isn’t completely right in all honesty, particularly when there were clearly worse actors than him. I think his failure as a representative of the left is that he succumbed to it rather than offered a transformative project.

    His more recent attempts in swaying political opinion are a continuation of that agenda though, and I can’t comfortably grant the same leeway now the political context has changed.

    As for non-neoliberal ideas in the modern age, there aren’t great examples of nations, but there are great examples of specific policies: housing in Vienna (or even Singapore), worker’s rights in France, worker councils in Germany, direct democracy in Switzerland, or, hell, even the Conservative policy on employee-owned companies (notwithstanding the issues with it). I’m sure many others are kicking about too.

    Otherwise you have to go back in time to the New Deal and UK welfare state.

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