Marc Stears | |
---|---|
Born | 1971 (age 52–53) |
Nationality | British |
Known for | Political thinker and academic |
Marc Stears (born 1971) is a British political theorist. He is Director of the UCL Policy Lab, based at University College London, having previously led the Sydney Policy Lab at The University of Sydney. [1] Before arriving in Sydney in 2018, Marc had been Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation. He was previously Professor of Political Theory and Fellow of University College, Oxford. [2] His published works have focussed mainly on the development of progressive political movements in the UK [3] and the USA. [4] He was a leading thinker in the Blue Labour movement. [5] He was formerly chief speechwriter to Ed Miliband during the Labour leader's unsuccessful 2015 General Election campaign. [6]
Raised in South Wales, Stears became first interested in the impact of politics and political systems on people's lives from an early age [7] and went on to read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Following positions at Nuffield College, Oxford, the University of Bristol and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Stears became University Lecturer in Political Theory and Director of the Centre for Political Ideologies at University College, Oxford. In 2011 he became a member of the Institute for Public Policy Research, looking particularly at the relationship between the state and society. [8]
Stears is one of the editors of "The Labour tradition and the politics of paradox" [9] along with Maurice Glasman, Jonathan Rutherford and Stuart White. This book came out of a series of seminars in Oxford and London, which seek to find a new direction for the Labour Party after its 2010 electoral defeat.
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy as a whole or certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others as well as a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished through radical means that change the nature of the society they are implemented in. According to emeritus professor of economics Barry Clark, supporters of left-wing politics "claim that human development flourishes when individuals engage in cooperative, mutually respectful relations that can thrive only when excessive differences in status, power, and wealth are eliminated."
Pluralism as a political philosophy is the diversity within a political body, which is seen to permit the peaceful coexistence of different interests, convictions, and lifestyles. While not all political pluralists advocate for a pluralist democracy, this is the most common stance, because democracy is often viewed as the most fair and effective way to moderate between discrete values.
Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor/trade unions, employer organizations, and the state.
The Third Way, also known as Modernised Social Democracy, is a predominantly centrist political position that attempts to reconcile centre-right and centre-left politics by synthesising a combination of economically liberal and social democratic economic policies.
New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain Eastern European parties after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the United States, the Second New Right campaigned against abortion, LGBT civil rights, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), the Panama Canal Treaty, affirmative action, and most forms of taxation.
Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited government and an overall more laissez-faire style of governance. While both are committed to personal freedoms, social liberalism places greater emphasis on the role of government in addressing social inequalities and ensuring public welfare.
Syncretic politics, or spectral-syncretic politics, combine elements from across the conventional left–right political spectrum. The idea of syncretic politics has been influenced by syncretism and syncretic religion. The main idea of syncretic politics is that taking political positions of neutrality by combining elements associated with left-wing politics and right-wing politics can achieve a goal of reconciliation.
Alan Brian Carter is Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow.
Sir Paul Collier, is a British development economist who serves as the Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and co-Director of the International Growth Centre. He is also a Professeur invité at Sciences Po and a Professorial Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford.
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist and democratic approach towards achieving socialism. In modern practice, social democracy has taken the form of predominantly capitalist economies, with the state regulating the economy in the form of welfare capitalism, economic interventionism, partial public ownership, a robust welfare state, policies promoting social equality, and a more equitable distribution of income.
Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some scholars consider it to be the left of communist parties, while others broaden it to include the left of social democracy. In certain instances—especially in the news media—far left has been associated with some forms of authoritarianism, anarchism, communism, and Marxism, or are characterized as groups that advocate for revolutionary socialism and related communist ideologies, or anti-capitalism and anti-globalization. Far-left terrorism consists of extremist, militant, or insurgent groups that attempt to realize their ideals through political violence rather than using democratic processes.
In popular discourse, the horseshoe theory asserts that advocates of the far-left and the far-right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear continuum of the political spectrum, closely resemble each other, analogous to the way that the opposite ends of a horseshoe are close together. The theory is attributed to the French philosopher and writer of fiction and poetry Jean-Pierre Faye in his 1972 book Théorie du récit: introduction aux langages totalitaires, in relation to Otto Strasser.
Blue Labour is a British campaign group and political faction that seeks to promote blue-collar and culturally conservative values within the British Labour Party – particularly on immigration, crime, and community spirit – while remaining committed to labour rights and left-wing economic policies. It seeks to represent a traditional working-class approach to Labour politics.
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman is an English political theorist, academic, social commentator, and Labour life peer in the House of Lords. He is a senior lecturer in Political Theory at London Metropolitan University, Director of its Faith and Citizenship Programme and a columnist for the New Statesman, UnHerd, Tablet and Spiked. He is best known as a founder of Blue Labour, a term he coined in 2009.
Stewart Martin Wood, Baron Wood of Anfield is a Labour life peer in the House of Lords. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and a Senior Adviser to policy, economics and public affairs firm Bradshaw Advisory.
Tangled Up in Blue: Blue Labour and the Struggle for Labour's Soul is a 2011 politics book by the journalist and Labour councillor Rowenna Davis. The work tracks the emergence of Blue Labour, a movement within the UK Labour Party which seeks to promote active citizenship and to champion traditional community values. While Davis does describe Blue Labour's ideas and policy recommendations, the book focuses on political relationships and the roles these played in Blue Labour's development. In particular the book is concerned with Lord Glasman and his relationships with other academics, strategists, and politicians – especially David and Ed Miliband. The work is Davis's first book.
Progressive conservatism is a political ideology that attempts to combine conservative and progressive policies. While still supportive of capitalist economy, it stresses the importance of government intervention in order to improve human and environmental conditions.
Roger Eatwell is a British academic currently an Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Bath.
Helen Zerlina Margetts, is Professor of Internet and Society at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford and from 2011 to 2018 was Director of the OII. She is currently Director of the Public Policy Programme at The Alan Turing Institute. She is a political scientist specialising in digital era governance and politics, and has published over a hundred books, journal articles and research reports in this field.
Marius Sebastian OstrowskiFRHistS FRSA is a German-British political and social theorist, historian of ideas, policy researcher, and composer, based at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. His research interests lie in the study of ideology and ideologies, focusing especially on how social contexts shape patterns of ordinary thinking and everyday behaviour. He also writes on the theory and history of social democracy, in particular its origins in interwar socialist reformist thought, and on progressive visions of European integration, including the prospects for a Europe-wide Universal Basic Income.