Human Nature and the Right

Abstract

The Radical Right’s assault on the classic welfare state was intended as a key step in laying the foundations for a new political consensus replacing the Social Democratic compact which had dominated political life between 1945 and 1979. The new politics of the 1980s and 1990s not only gave rise to a different policy agenda, but also promoted a new vision of human nature based on the spirit of individualism, enterprise and consumerism. However, the realization in the 1990s that this project had not overcome the shortcomings of Social Democratic policy and had its own shortcomings, contributed to a deepening sense of disillusionment in the two major political agendas and cast doubt on their respective views of human nature. This chapter seeks to define the Radical Right’s view of human nature, to explore the meta-theory that characterizes it, and to assess how far it has influenced social policy and what new directions policy might follow. In particular, it addresses the scope within the Right’s view of human nature for fulfilling, what we have called, mutual human needs through market exchange based on voluntary association and competition among producers and on communal life among consumers. The term Radical Right is used to refer to the influence of neo-liberal economic thought, especially that of Hayek, on the Conservative Party in Britain and its satellite think tanks which influenced the policy agenda in the 1980s and 1990s.