WELFARE, HIERARCHY AND THE `NEW RIGHT': THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL POLICY CHANGES IN BRITAIN, 1979-1989

Abstract

The policy statements of the British Conservative government are heavily influenced by `new right' ideology. However, progress towards the declared goals of spending constraint, the expansion of the private sector, a high degree of selectivity in state provision and tax reduction has been slow. Changes in policy are better understood in terms of a redirection rather than a rolling back of the state; a greater emphasis in welfare intervention on the sustenance of the existing pattern of class inequalities and family dependency, and the nourishing of forces which will press for further shifts in this direction. The impact of policy change fits an old right programme of dependency, obligation and hierarchy better than a `new right' ideology of market individualism.