‘Sacking the New Jerusalem? - The New Right, Social Democracy and Professional Identities’

Abstract

The New Right have had an important if somewhat imprecise impact upon Anglo-American capitalism over the past twenty years. Much has been written about them by a variety of disciplines over a wide subject terrain. This paper will further contribute to this analysis by discussing an area which has been somewhat neglected to date - namely, the way in which the New Rightís attempt to reconstruct society has affected professional work, the identities of professionals and, by implication, the service class. It will do so through an analysis of the New Right and towards the end it will use the University sector as an example of change for a variety of professional areas. Changes in the University and other sectors have led to new discourses and practices which have had real material effects and altered the nature of professional work. In turn, these effects have reshaped the welfare state and undermined key aspects of the pre-New Right foundations on which it was built. This alteration is ongoing and hence the future of the welfare state and the wider social structure is being fought out in these processes. To simplify this attempted reconstruction has pitted public sector professionals against private sector ones as the former have material interests bound up with a large allocative state whilst the latterís interests are tied up with a neo-liberal state. However, such a division creates a problem for the New Rightís long term success as it potentially encourages one section of the service class to support the left in an attempt to conserve their bit of the welfare state. What follows is based upon the experience of the UK.