Making People More Responsible: The Blair Governments' Programme for Changing Citizens' Behaviour

Abstract

A distinctive feature of the three Blair New Labour governments' domestic policy was the effort to change citizens' behaviour. Variously explained using such slogans as ‘something for something’, ‘responsibility’ and, in combating antisocial behaviour, ‘respect’, behaviour change was presented by the PM's Strategy Unit as an overarching strategic framework for policy. This included conditionality in welfare to work, health promotion campaigns, a ban on smoking in public places, measures to combat antisocial behaviour and enforce school discipline, home–school contracts, community cohesion and neighbourhood renewal programmes, measures to encourage car sharing and use of public transport, and others to promote domestic waste recycling. This article examines how far the two principal explanatory theories available predict that programme's characteristics. It uses a structured data set on the policy instruments, target groups and content of initiatives undertaken by eight central government spending departments. We find that indeed the strong (more coercive) tools are markedly concentrated on initiatives targeting the poor and low-income working strata. The expectations derived from the two theoretical traditions are not strongly supported.