ABSTRACT
The trepidation with which qualitative socialists contemplated Labour’s new faith in expansion and technology in the early 1960s was not without foundation. Disappointment at the lossor marginalization-of the qualitative ideal belied a fear of political expediency: lacking the coherence that a vision of solidaristic egalitarianism could provide, Labour governments might be tempted to pursue purely pragmatic goals. Technocrats and Keynesians discounted the vision as misguided and naive, with good reason, but there is little doubt that the ‘technocratic settlement’ set out in Signposts for the Sixties contained a number of hostages to fortune which justified qualitative socialist anxieties. Not only would planned economic expansion have to materialize, and a Labour government therefore show itself more capable than its post-war predecessor of instituting the appropriate machinery, but the anticipated fruits would need to be shared in ways which satisfied prevailing expectations of rising living standards and better welfare provision. With the 1940s’ rhetoric of fair shares diminished if not disgraced, little existed in doctrinal terms on which to base appeals for restraint or ‘equality of sacrifice’ should such expectations prove too ambitious.
