Word.ws English Dictionary

MacDonaldism

MacDonaldism noun: the centrist political policies of Ramsay MacDonald, especially after his split with the Labour Party in 1931.

Noun (1)

MacDonaldism (uncountable)

  1. (UK) The centrist political policies of Ramsay MacDonald, especially after his split with the Labour Party in 1931.
    • Initially substance was limited but, eventually, moves to resolve this issue came with the publication of For Socialism and Peace which proposed a move away from MacDonaldism towards a highly planned economy and large state.2012, Matt Cole, Political Parties in Britain, page 29
    • The allegation of 'MacDonaldism' would still be spat at Jenkins himself as late as the 1980s.2014, John Campbell, Roy Jenkins

Noun (2) capitalized: Macdonaldism

Macdonaldism (uncountable)

  1. (Canada) The policies recommended by the Macdonald Commission, especially the neoliberal economic policies and emphasis on free trade.
    • The second development revolved around the growth of a radical alternative to Macdonaldism.1994, Neville Kirk, Labour and Society in Britain and the USA, page 75
    • And over and above this blatant injustice, through an ever-expanding global network the dehumanizing consequences of a certain uniform model of culture (call it cultural Macdonaldism) are spreading to the whole of the planet and eroding away the original local cultures.2004, Luiz Carlos Susin, Jon Sobrino, Felix Wilfred, A different world is possible, page 71

Origin of MacDonaldism

From MacDonald + -ism after Ramsay MacDonald, founder of the British Labour Party.

From Macdonald + -ism, from Donald Stovel Macdonald, the chair of the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada (the Macdonald Commission).

Questions about MacDonaldism

What does MacDonaldism mean?
MacDonaldism means the centrist political policies of Ramsay MacDonald, especially after his split with the Labour Party in 1931.
What part of speech is MacDonaldism?
MacDonaldism is a noun.

Words near MacDonaldism in the dictionary

  1. Macdonald
  2. Macdonald polynomial
  3. Macdonald polynomials
  4. Macdonald triad
  5. Macdonaldian
  6. MacDonaldism
  7. macdonaldite
  8. MacDonaldites
  9. MacDonaldization
  10. Macdonalds
  11. Macdonalds Creek

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: MacDonaldism (page history and authors); Macdonaldism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “MacDonaldism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/macdonaldism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.