Summary
Summary New Right and Social Inequality
New Right and social inequality
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New-Right approach to inequalityWhy do we have inequality?
- Similar to functionalism- believe inequality to be inevitable and useful
- Do not feel that inequality is a problem for society
- Basic idea of the New Right is that individuals should be responsible as far as
possible for their own life and that governments should play a minimal role in the
running of society
- Society should be governed by the needs of business and commerce because market
forces will ensure maximum efficiency in governing society
- New Right perspective has had significant impact on social policy and government-
UK (Thatcher and neo-conservativism) / USA (Regan and contemporary
Republicanism)
- Believes in a free market- belief that competition and freedom of choice create a
healthy society
- People should be free to make their own decisions and in turn must accept
responsibility for their own actions
- Choice is seen as a good thing as it means competition which they say drives up
standards- anything that restricts choice and competition is viewed as bad for society
- Criticise Welfare State- has undermined personal responsibility and encouraged
people to become dependant on welfare state
Trickle-down theory- inequality and the wealthy
- Belief that if the wealthy pay less tax and make more profit, the money they spend
will stimulate the economy, create more jobs and everyone will benefit
- Thatcher cut top-rate tax from 83% to 60% in 1979-by 1988 top rate tax was 40%
- Thus wealthy people were able to keep more of their personal income
- Industries owned by the government were privatised (e.g. railways), in part to help
fund that tax cuts but also reflecting view that public sector should be as small as
possible
- Budget of March 2016 caused political furore as welfare benefits were cut in order to
reduce corporation tax for wealthy companies
Underclass theory-inequality and poorer sectors of society
- Functionalists and New Right explain inequality as factor of poor themselves, rather
than the structure of society
- Theories which explain existence of poverty as fault of poor themselves:
Cultural deprivation theory- poor have a culture which keeps them from
success
Cycle of deprivation theories- poor transmit poverty to their children
through poor socialisation
Underclass theory- combines these 2 approaches to understanding of
inequality and is based on functionalism and conservative political thinking
- O’Brian- thinkers from New Right applied concepts which were common in Victorian
times to an understanding of poverty and inequality
Deserving poor people-poor for reasons beyond their control and who
struggle to work their way out of poverty
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