Labour Governments and the Welfare State Since 1945

This chapter begins by considering the nature of the Labour Party’s ideological underpinnings, highlighting the ways in which these have changed since 1945. It then highlights the development of the welfare state by the

post-1945 Labour governments. Subsequently, it examines the revisionist social democratic stance of the Wilson and Callaghan governments in the 1960s and 1970s, where the welfare state was seen as having a key role to play in the pursuit of greater social equality. It then turns its attention to the New Labour governments from 1997 to 2010.