Joel Krieger, one of America's most perceptive observers of British politics, provides an in-depth study of New Labour's model of government and the political challenges it faces. Krieger analyses the interaction of global processes and domestic politics from the organization of production to the formation of class, ethnic and gender based collective identities. The book considers how these processes compromise sovereignty, complicate national identities, forge new political agendas, create electoral volatility and complicate the art of politics.

Krieger develops an original framework for analysing New Labour in comparison to three models of social democracy and places the British case firmly in the context of alternative national models and broader European debates. Employing an approach with potential applications well beyond the UK, the book reconceptualizes globalization and introduces the concept "modular politics" to explain the context-dependent processes of identity formation that shape - and potentially destabilize - contemporary politics.

This book is suitable for second-year undergraduates and above in British politics, political economy and political sociology.