Tony Blair and Liberal Democracy Ideology - Essay Example

Running Head: Legacy of Tony Blair for Liberal Ideology Tony Blair and Liberal Democracy Ideology s: Introduction The Labour Party prior to the election of Tony Blair as the Prime Minister of United Kingdom had been unelectable party which was widely un-trusted. He however managed to win with the Labour Party against the very much popular Conservative Party. With his ascending to power the concept of New Labour was elevated to higher levels. He was also responsible for renaming and rebranding the party which made it more attractive to the electorate and this played an instrumental role in ensuring that he spent three terms in the office. This can be seen as a remarkable success by any means because he was the first Prime Minister of the Labour Party that spent three terms at the office. Tony Blair played a major role in Unifying the Labour Party a fact that made the popularity of the Labour Party to rise in the United Kingdom. It is through this unification that the country experienced a balance between the two major parties the country and that is the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. This is referred to by some experts as the Blair effect. This shows that Tony Blair was a good leader by all means and this also brings about the question of liberalization. It is important to note that Tony Blair highly advocated for the liberalization of various aspects in the country as well as other parts of the world especially the developing countries and countries that were having political, social and economical problems. Tony Blair Liberal Ideology Tony Blair was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from the year 1997 to the year 2007 and during his premiership, he adopted various policies which have been seen by many as to advocate for Liberal Democracy and Nation State. Many people will remember him for the foreign wars that he was involved in when he was the Prime Minister and also his doctrines of military intervention in various conflicts in the world. When he was resigning, he argued in parliament that his successors should learn to use his foreign policy. Although these doctrines and policies were not instrumental in his first election to the premiership and were not cited in his campaign, the policies that were cited in his first campaign still remained instrumental in his leadership throughout his premiership1. The most prevalent political model of Tony Blair was the Liberal Democratic Nation State. This was his initial political ideology and while he exercised this at the domestic politics, his foreign policy leaned very much to the Liberal Democracy ideology. It is important to note that even though the Liberal Democracy was a prevalent policy in the United Kingdom long before Tony Blair was elected to the premiership but he also embraced this policy during his premiership2. On the international side, the global crusade for the policy of liberal democracy was taken by Tony Blair as his personal crusade during the conflict of Kosovo. Although he faced significant criticism from various quarters, he did not shy away from implementing this policy in the subsequent wars that included Afghanistan and Iraq. He was also very instrumental in bringing about neoliberalism to be the country's dominant social and moral philosophy. This does not meant that neoliberalism is just a synonym of capitalism because the society and the political culture of the country were transformed by numerous policies which sought to eliminate the ideal of equality from the political policies and this policies also encourage the establishment and acceptance of an underclass which had the outlook of permanency and hereditary social group. Under the administration of Tony Blair, the core electorate group also known as Middle Britain had the opportunity to dominate the country's politics and in so doing they excluded the disadvantaged and non-voting underclass from the politics of the country3. Blair also attempted to implement the Mazzinian Nationalism but this failed and this can be attributed to various facts. The Mazzinian Nationalism states that our country is the best country in the world but this came to be undermined when Tony Blair's foreign policy was greatly compromised by that of the United States. Tony Blair openly supported the ideologies of the United States especially the President of the United States being George. W. Bush. George Bush had changed the country's foreign policy from being merely the watchdog for world order and the chief campaigner of democracy in the world and it had taken this responsibilities a bit too far. The problem with Blair is that he supported all the Bush Doctrine policies and in this way the Mizzinian Nationalism he had started failed him when he deemed that the United States offered better Foreign Policy which was important to be supported by the United Kingdom4. Blair similarly to the predecessor in the administration, the Conservative Party implemented and also had the vision of the society and state. This means that he advocated and implemented policies which encouraged liberal market, democratic state and also a nation state. The doctrine of Tony Blair operated in the traditional framework of liberalism and nationalism. He did not implement these policies at the national level but also strongly advocated for the whole world to adopt these policies which were deemed by the western countries to be overly beneficial to the world. This can be witnessed by his speech in October 2000 when he supported the benefits of the ideal Europe of the Nation States by asserting that the continent was made up of sovereign nations which were also free and had the right to pursue the national interests and the common good and he also asserted that this would be better achieved with the nations unified than when not unified. He however, did not support the notion of the creation of a super state, an ideology that was supported by the majority of the European countries5. A nation state has the outstanding feature that secession is very difficulty. The world of nation states would prove to be very difficult since the creation of new states can almost be impossible. This is because many people have lived in a political state that they have become used to and may be reluctant to adopt new leadership or new forms of government other than the one that the countries they have lived in have afforded them for all their lives. These sentiments can be said to have been shared by Tony Blair because he was opposed to the creation of a European Super State although many countries felt that they needed to create such a super state6. Societies which have adopted the liberal ideology also have the problem that they are not susceptible to change. These societies have opposed to changes that the system has subjected them to and the society would like to live in the system they started with. This can be clearly evidenced by the fact that the societies have been afforded various rights and such aspects as market liberalization. This is very instrumental in the development of the society but if some changes are to be introduced to the society, the changes are met with a lot of opposition. This is why United Kingdom with the leadership of Tony Blair tried very much to remain a highly liberal country but some changes in the world were taking place and the government had to adapt to these changes. These changes were met with a lot of opposition and this did not only include internal opposition from political leaders and the electorate but also by the international community7. To this effect the country had remained highly neutral in the world affairs and it also had not been involved in any conflict with other countries. However, with Bush came the Bush doctrine which laid a basis for which the foreign policy of the United States was focused on the war against terrorism. These sentiments were also shared by Tony Blair and this precipitated a lot of criticism from the international community and also from internal quarters. This means that Blair have advocated for liberal ideology made a mistake of subjecting the country to changes on various political grounds such as the military intervention in three countries that is, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq and this being felt by the world that they were being fueled by the United States ambition to further its interests in the world8. Blair with the influence of the United States foreign policy was also involved in the crusade of the global liberal democracy. The country's involvement in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization intervention in Kosovo was viewed as a success by many people in the world. However, the intervention did not realize its objective of ensuring that Kosovo remained a peaceful country. However, to the people who view that the west should impose its ideologies to the rest of the world viewed this as a successful intervention and these feelings were asserted by Tony Blair himself9. His willingness to go to great lengths in his efforts to safe guard these ideologies of liberal democracy all over the world were witnessed when he agreed with former United States president, George W. Bush when after the 911 attacks both presidents agreed that the ideology of liberal democracy was under threat. This led to the invasion of Afghanistan led by the United States and United Kingdom supported this invasion all the way. Apart from the invasion of Afghanistan there was also the invasion of Iraq and the protection of the liberal democracy was cited as one of the reasons behind this attack. He went further and proposed for the liberal intervention to be taken by the European countries to Africa10. However, Tony Blair have been criticized from various quarters that he did not advocate for the liberal democracy to protect political stability of many countries or the cultural liberalization of many societies all over the world but to increase the value of one aspect that would ensure that the world leading economies would continue to benefit over the weaker economies and that is the liberal market democracy. It is to this effect that many countries especially the countries from the developing regions have viewed pro liberal ideology as being placed by the United Kingdom and the United States to protect the interests of some of the companies that refer the two countries plus other developed nations especially from Europe as their mother countries. With liberal market democracy, the weaker economies in the world would not have the right to deter some of the leading companies from the developed countries in venturing into their markets. With these entries in the developing economies, the companies from the developing economies are feted against the leading corporations and this means that they cannot be overly competitive with these economies. Tony Blair and George Bush have been cited as protecting the interests of the leading companies under the pretext of protecting the world in terms of liberal ideology which leans towards cultural and political democracy11. Conclusion Although the issue of Tony Blair and his advocacy of liberal democracy ideology has been marred by a lot of controversy and criticism which indirectly led to his resignation, his advocacy of the ideology have played a very important role in ensuring that the world adapts this ideology as it offers the best form of leadership in the world. However, these sentiments have been meted with a lot of criticism and this criticism is based on the fact that although the liberal democracy crusades of international levels have been to improve the liberal market democracy. This has been very destructive on the careers of both the United Kingdom Premier and the United States President who have been seen as propagating about liberal democracy while in the real sense they were advocating for liberal market democracy. It is believed by many people around the world that the New Labour philosophy was very instrumental in the creation of third way in integration of the Free Market Capitalism which had been a policy that had been highly advocated for the administration of the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher. Blair had the vision of a government that would play a very instrumental role in the regulation of the market while still addressing the responsibilities of the citizens to the state so as to improve their welfare. After all has been said and done, the New Labour was a party that supported democracy, free market and market liberalization and which had the outlook of a radical centre. Works Cited Alistar McCulloch, 'Tony Blair's Legacy'. Beckett, F. & Hencke, D. (2004). The Blairs and Their Court. Aurum Press. Bill Coxall et al 'Contemporary British Politics' p. 45. Blair, Tony (2000). Superpower: Not Superstate (Federal Trust European Essays) Federal Trust for Education & Research. Campbell, Alistair The Blair Years, Hutchinson, 2007. Gould, Philip (1999). The Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers Saved the Labour Party. Abacus. Ian Budge et al 'The New British Politics' p. 340-341. Naughtie, James (2001). The Rivals: The Intimate Story of a Political Marriage. Fourth Estate. Rentou, John Tony Blair: Prime Minster, London: Little Brown, 2001. Seldon, Anthony (2004). Blair. Free Press. Stephens, Philip (2004). Tony Blair: The Making of a World Leader. Viking Books. Read More