The GOP has become the party of reform

WASHINGTON, DC: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair came to prominence in the 1990s as an expert in political renovation, transforming the Labour Party from a creaky, socialist relic to a modern, center-left, governing institution. Before Blair, Labour had not won back-to-back victories in a hundred years. Blair secured three.

In his recent Philip Gould Lecture, Blair described the substance of that overhaul: the need, driven by globalization, to decentralize economic decision-making; to recognize the essential social roles of business and the voluntary sector; and “to be iconoclastic in reshaping public services.” “No political philosophy today,” he argued, “will achieve support unless it focuses on individual empowerment, not collective control.”