Neglecting Europe: explaining the predominance of American ideas in New Labour’s welfare policies since 1997

Britain’s New Labour Government has placed welfare reform at the top of its political agenda. New Labour has endorsed a radical ‘workfare’ agenda in relation to labour market policies. The government no longer aims to secure full employment through direct job creation or Keynesian demand management. Instead, it promotes the notion of equal opportunities for all based on a contract between benefit claimants and the employment service. The New Deal is at the heart of British activation programmes for the unemployed. While American policies have provided a crucial influence on the design of the New Deal, the influence of European programmes has been – and still is – much more limited. The article provides ample evidence of the lack of European–British policy networks and explores the reasons why policy transfer occurs principally from the US rather than from Continental Europe.