Discourses of Modernization: Gaitskell, Blair and the Reform of Clause IV

This contribution examines the debates surrounding both Gaitskell's and Blair's attempts to reform the party (and in particular Clause IV), and argues that while the 'Old Labour' versus 'New Labour' dichotomy is a simplification - and is unconvincing as an account of Blair's political trajectory - some important changes to party thinking and culture have taken place under Blair. Indeed it is argued that while Gaitskell did attempt to reshape social democracy, particularly through his distinction between the ends of socialism and the appropriate means for its realization, he still framed reform very much within the socialist and social democratic agendas that dominated the party until the 1980s and persisted in certain forms into the 1990s.