Back to the future: New Labour, sovereignty and the plurality of the party's ideological tradition

In terms of understanding the state, British political elites have traditionally drawn from the framework of the Westminster model which offers a 'hard' notion of Westphalian sovereignty. Over the last few decades, this notion of indivisible sovereignty has become increasingly unsustainable as the nature of both domestic and international politics has been transformed. This article argues that the recent Labour Government, unlike its Conservative predecessors, was able to respond to these changes by redefining and developing its conception of sovereignty to suit the material reality of the twenty-first century. Their approach to sovereignty moved beyond the traditional interpretation offered by the Westminster model. They appealed to more multi-dimensional and nuanced understandings which invite parallels from within Labour's own ideological tradition with the pluralist and guild socialist conceptions of sovereignty. British Politics (2010) 5, 239-264. doi: 10.1057/bp.2010.7