The Development of Practical Social Democracy in the United Kingdom

This chapter examines the character of British Labour as a reformist party. Drawing on work of United States diplomats reporting back to Washington, and the work of Egon Wertheimer, a social democratic journalist in London during the 1920s, alongside other sources, it advances an original perspective on Labour politics, one that is based around its empiricism, its antipathy to theory, and its insularity. It argues that such empiricism is grounded in the circumstances of its foundation, the decisions of key actors in its early years, and the wider context of British politics. In turn, such a practical outlook shaped the party’s insularity and general lack of concern with developments elsewhere. Focusing on the years of the Attlee government between 1945 and 1951 alongside other material, the chapter examines how this orientation shaped Labour politics. It asks whether the party can be considered ‘exceptional’ in comparison with European social democratic parties. It concludes that empiricism and insularity offer revealing insights into the Labour Party and its approach to politics, insights that have frequently been neglected in scholarly enquiry.