Face the Future

London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1981. BOOK: Corners, Spine, Boards Bumped; Light Shelf Rub to Boards; Edges Lightly Soiled. DUST JACKET: Previous Owner Markings (Price Clipped); Lightly Creased; Lightly Chipped; In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. CONTENTS: Acknowledgments; PART ONE: SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 1 The Values of Socialism 2 The Decentralist Tradition 3 The Growth of Corporatism 4 The Social Democratic Tradition; PART TWO: THE PURSUIT OF EQUALITY 5 Inequality 6 Economic Policy 7 Incomes Policy; PART THREE: THE MIXED ECONOMY 8 Industrial Policy 9 Energy Policy 10 State Intervention 11 Co-operatives 12 Industrial Democracy; PART FOUR: REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY 13 Parliamentary Government 14 Constitutional Reform 15 Local Government 16 Community Care 17 Freedom with Security; PART FIVE: INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISM 18 The Internationalist Tradition 19 Negotiate and Survive 20 The Community of Twelve; Notes; Index. SYNOPSIS: Face the Future presents a radical strategy for social democrats. It savages centralised bureaucratic state-oriented socialism. David Owen argues passionately for a shift in attitude in favour of a democracy of greater involvement where persuasion and consent predominate. He attacks the growing corporatist trend and advocates democratic rights for workers in industry and an expansion of worker co-operatives. The book is irreverent and challenging in its advocacy of open government, parliamentary reform, national and regional assemblies, and greater freedom for local government and the Health Service. Reviving the internationalist traditions of socialism, he argues with conviction against unilateralism and withdrawal, emphasising the need for negotiations over disarmament and arms control and for transforming the European community. David Owen writes about the values of socialism, how to foster a climate of altruism, how to marry equality with fraternity in a decentralised disaggregated society. He offers a coherent tough-minded strategy for tackling Britain's deep-seated economic and industrial problems linking market socialism and egalitarian socialism in a way which is neither revisionist nor traditionalist. Face the Future promises to be one of the most constructive contributions to the political debate in Britain, from a writer who at the age of forty-two has been in government for seven of the last twelve years as Foreign Secretary, Minister of Health and Under-Secretary of the Royal Navy. Dr David Owen was Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 1977 to 1979. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Plymouth, Devonport. He was born in 1938 in Plymouth, and educated at Bradfield College, at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and at St Thomas's Hospital, where from 1964 to 1966 he was Neurological and Psychiatric Registrar, and from 1966 to 1968 Research Fellow in the Medical Unit. Before his election to parliament for the Sutton Division of Plymouth in 1966 Dr Owen contested Torrington in 1964. After his election he became, in 1966, Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Defence, Administration. From 1968 to 1970 he was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence (Royal Navy). When labour went into opposition in 1970, he became an Opposition front bench spokesman on defence until his resignation in 1972 on the question of Britain's membership of the European Community. Since the general election of February 1974, following constituency boundary changes, he has represented the Devonport Division of Plymouth. He was Minister of State with responsibility for Health in the Department of Health and Social Security from 1974 to 1976, when he guided through parliament the Children Act, which he had first introduced as a Private Member's Bill. In September 1976 he became Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where he was responsible for European Community affairs. In February 1977 he was appointed Foreign Secretary, at 38 the youngest Foreign Secretary since the late Lord Avon, then Mr Anthony Eden, in 1935. He was Opposition Sp9okesman on Energy from 1979 to 1980. The editor of A Unified Health Service and a contributor to Social Services for All, he is also the author of The Politics of Defence and Human Rights. Dr Owen has also published scientific articles in The Lancet, Neurology and Clinical Science.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.