The Idea of the Good Society: Essays in Honour of Raymond Plant

This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the political thought and practice of Raymond Plant (Professor Lord Plant of Highfield) and celebrates the three aspects of his public life which speak to his idea of the good society: scholarship, politics, and civil society.

Firstly, Plant’s scholarship was remarkable in its breadth including philosophy, social work, political studies, social policy, theology, and jurisprudence. In particular, Plant’s work on Hegel, the New Liberals, social democracy, Hayek, and Rawls has had significant impact. Secondly, Plant’s long association with the Labour Party which began in Grimsby in his youth through his friendship with the local MP Tony Crosland. He later chaired the Party’s commission into electoral reform, took a seat on the Labour benches in the House of Lords, and chaired the Fabian Society commission into taxation and citizenship. Thirdly, his work with civil society including time as President of the NCVO, as chair of Centrepoint, as a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and appointment as a lay canon of Winchester Cathedral.

This collection brings together distinguished scholars and contemporaries on all of the main aspects of Plant’s thought and practical work and honours the remarkable scope and influence of his life.

Matt Beech, Reader in Politics and Director of the Centre for British Politics, University of Hull and Senior Fellow, Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Kevin Hickson, Senior Lecturer in British Politics, Politics Department, University of Liverpool

Matt Beech is Reader in Politics and Director of the Centre for British Politics at the University of Hull and IES Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley. He publishes on Conservative and Labour history and ideas and is researching a monograph on the Culture Wars. His most recent book is the co-edited volume with Simon Lee, Conservative Governments in the Age of Brexit (Palgrave Macmillan 2023). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Associate Member of the Centre de Recherches en Civilisation Britannique at the Sorbonne Nouvelle. He has held visiting appointments at Oxford, Berkeley, and Flinders.

Kevin Hickson is Senior Lecturer in British Politics at the University of Liverpool where he has worked for 20 years. He writes extensively on British politics, political history, and ideologies. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education academy. His publications include Britain’s Conservative Right since 1945: Traditional Toryism in a Cold Climate and Peter Shore: Labour’s Forgotten Patriot. He is currently writing a political and intellectual biography of Douglas Jay.