The Brown Government: A Policy Evaluation

The Brown Government provides an interim evaluation of Gordon Brown’s Labour administration through identifying continuities and discontinuities with the Blair governments from 1997. By focusing on key ideas and areas of public policy it presents an analysis of the first 18 months of Brown’s government. This book is notable for its topicality particularly for the discussions of the credit crunch, the British banking crises and the interconnectedness of these events with the global economic downturn.

A study of Brown’s handling of these crises in the economy is important as it is arguable that the present recession and credit crunch will reach unprecedented proportions and therefore define the character and content of British politics in the coming years. By conducting an examination of the Brown Government’s public policy priorities one can begin to decipher its aims and values and, by so doing, begin to understand the next phase of the New Labour project. In this sense the book is a contribution to the ongoing study of contemporary British social democracy.

This book was published as a special issue of Policy Studies.

Matt Beech is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Centre for British Politics at the University of Hull. His most recent monograph, with Kevin Hickson, is Labour’s Thinkers: The Intellectual Roots of Labour from Tawney to Gordon Brown (2007).

Simon Lee is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Hull. His research interests include global political economy, the politics and national identity of England and the politics of Gordon Brown. His most recent monograph is Best for Britain? The Politics and Legacy of Gordon Brown (2007).