Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband try to fix the world

Politicians usually write books about how to change the world before they serve in government. The pursuit of high office can be a catalyst for ambition to remake the world. Being in government is normally a reminder of the difficulty of fulfilling such ambition.

It is a tribute to Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband that governing at the highest level has not lessened their enthusiasm for politics. Each has absorbed the low moments that politics relentlessly serves and they still want to change the world.  Their books also point to the challenge of reconciling their agendas with the ascendancy of the Conservative Party and the reconfiguration of British politics by Brexit.

In Go Big, Ed Miliband argues not just for “the consideration of ideas that promise significant change but for politics to rediscover its sense of agency”.

A bleak economic and social context is portrayed. The social contract is fraying. It is unable to meet the basic needs of enough citizens and combat growing economic and social insecurity. This undermines the ability of citizens to pursue “their own idea of a good life”. Miliband argues that this erosion is caused by a singular and powerful force: that “market mechanisms have come to dominate the way our society is run”.

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The proposed agenda is familiar. More devolution, strengthened local government, changes in the voting age and the use of citizen assemblies are part of this agenda. These policies are more conventional than some readers might expect.

Go Big concludes with an analysis of the public leaders who can deliver this agenda. Trade unions, local governments and social movements are the catalysts of change.

Conspicuously, parliament and government are absent. Miliband acknowledges that governing is vital but that “governments are both led and constrained by the wider dynamics of power in society”. Politicians are unable to overcome the forces of stasis, he argues.

This view could be a consequence of disenchantment with parliamentary life after a career in government or as party leader. But it is at odds with the recent experience of the role of government in the society and economy of Britain. The British state is central to the significant change required by the Brexit vote of 2016.

Case studies are central to the narrative of Going Big as a wide range of policy challenges are considered. Building more homes, the role of carers, the measurement of national income and corporate governance are central to any political agenda. However, societies and governments have more than one mission and always confront trade-offs. The author knows this, due to his extensive experience in government. These constraints are not recognised.

The British political context for this book also raises significant questions. Big change is already under way in British social and economic life. “Agency” is alive and well in national politics. However, it is not to the liking of the British Labour Party – old or new. Nigel Farage might argue that he has already “gone big”.

This may be why Brexit, and the reconfiguration of British politics around differing conceptions of national identity, does not sufficiently feature in this book. There is also an absence of international co-operation in many of the policy solutions suggested by Miliband.

Still, there is a basic decency and cheerfulness in Go Big, a stubborn optimism that wicked challenges can be overcome. The breadth of case studies presented in this book is also a horizon of both challenges and solutions.

Brown’s turn

Gordon Brown is equally ambitious with Seven Ways to Change the World. His solutions are explicitly international. In the introduction, he argues that “globalisation and the opening up of greater economic competition between nations will have to be complemented by new manifestations of co-operation and by greater solidarity across national borders”.

Seven challenges are presented. They include preventing pandemics, moving to a zero-carbon future and the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The strengthening of international institutions and global co-operation are essential elements of all solutions. A formula is proposed for the more equitable funding by wealthy countries of global public health measures. More inclusive and stronger global economic growth requires “new manifestations of co-operation and ... greater social solidarity across national borders”.

The accessible cheerfulness of Miliband is less evident. Policies are not suggested by way of story but by the use of evidence. Tables of data explain how solutions would work – country by country. Lists of problems and their solutions are relentlessly and impressively presented. Typically, a section on relations between the US and China is titled “Ten problems, ten possible ways forward?”

The concluding chapter, “Tackling populist nationalism head on”, is the most interesting. Brown argues that increased support for populist leaders is due to four factors: economic insecurity, diminished social status, cultural loss, and the perception of the domination of politics by elites.

Four solutions are proposed. Among them he argues for developing a form of patriotism without nationalism. This would “not only reject all forms of discrimination and exclusion but encourage all citizens to be active participants directly involved in shaping their country’s story”. That this desire for active participation may have led to Brexit is left unexplored.

Progress can be achieved, Brown writes, only if it can be demonstrated that “we can also show institution by institution, and perhaps network by network, the future contributions that a reformed international system can make to building a more prosperous, more stable and fairer world”.

To therefore not consider how Britain’s global role in these matters is impacted by leaving the European Union is a serious omission. To argue for deeper co-operation between countries but not consider how that relationship is changed by Brexit undermines the central proposition of Seven Ways.

In the concluding chapter the author writes that, as prime minister, he was “so busy working out the technical solutions to the crisis that I lost sight of the need to explain to people what we were trying to achieve”.

This book combines solutions with a narrative. The lack of a European perspective may be Brown’s tacit admission that this is the best way of making the case for international co-operation in a new “Global Britain”. It is leaden with lists, and lacks the upbeat zest of Go Big, but the reputation of Gordon Brown as a deeply serious public contributor will be reaffirmed by this book.

The simultaneous publication of two books by two former leaders of the Labour Party about how to remake Britain and the world is striking. Some may see this as futile, that writing books is a distraction from the sheer and unrelenting demands of a political vocation.

That would be a mistake. These books may be part of a very small genre. But they are dwarfed by the number of books and articles written, during the governing tenure of Brown and Tony Blair, analysing the continued defeats of the Conservative Party and questioning if that party could ever win an election again.

In politics, the future is always open. The worst of outcomes is never certain, the best outcome is never guaranteed but always possible. The value of “keeping going” in politics is underappreciated.

That very tone is evident in every page of these books.

Paschal Donohoe is the Minister for Finance and president of the Eurogroup