Political identity and the Third Way: some social-psychological implications of the current anti-ideological turn.

This paper considers recent large-scale changes in British politics from the standpoint of a detailed examination of the practical dilemmas, concerning political identity, faced by local politicians in their talk about politics. It seeks to examine the social-psychological significance of a shift which has meant that politics, while continuing to be characterized by formal division, has begun to extensively reflect the influence of an ideology of anti-ideology.