The New Right
Change in society – Resists social change and want to revert back to the ‘Golden age’ .
Key Ideas / •The New Right is closely linked to Functionalism as it is based on consensus
•It is a set of ideas which has influenced the political right/Conservative party in recent years
•The New Right are pessimistic about modern society and want to return to the ‘golden age’ which emphasises traditional values
•The New Right bases its theories on the idea that capitalist society encourages choice as to how individuals spend and earn their money, and what services they want to pay for.
•Therefore New Right sociologists believe that excessive state intervention, such as the welfare state should be avoided as this interferes with the workings of the economy.
•They believe that the free market and competition is the best way of creating efficiency and savings in the business world and public services.
•The New Right tend to be against the welfare state as they believe that it encourages individuals to be dependent on benefits
•The Culture of Dependency theory put forward by Murray assumes that the poor need to take responsibility for their situation as dependency creates more poverty and unemployment
•The concept of the ‘underclass’ is used to describe those dependent on welfare benefits. This is a class beneath the working class characterised by long term unemployment, high levels of crime and unstable families / Strengths Weaknesses / New Right ideas have been very important politically. They developed when governments/ politicians wanted to stress the importance of individual responsibility and not relying on others (the state). For example, the Thatcher and Regan political regimes made huge cuts in welfare provisions.
New Right theories see society consisting of individuals who are free to make choices. This is a strength of the theory and is different to most structural approaches in society.
New Right ideas have been used to solve real social problems. For example, health campaigns to promote healthy lifestyles have had some success in Britain. Further crime prevention strategies such as CCTV and improved street lighting have reduced crime levels in certain areas.
The New Right has been criticised for not being a real or coherent social theory. Some say that as it is linked to a political position (Conservative Party), it cannot possibly be objective and will always be bias.
The idea of a ‘golden age’ has been criticised. There are questions as to whether there ever really was a ‘golden age’ for the family, religion and education etc or if it was just different and these institutions have gone through major changes. Because the New Right believe in going back to traditional values it resists social change in that it wants to go back rather than look ahead.
The New Right has been criticised for having no real empirical evidence to back up its theories. As little research has been carried out they can provide no real evidence that the theory has any legitimate points.
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New Labour – In contrast
In 1997 ‘New Labour’ came into government. Their policies were far more ‘left-wing’ and are therefore a critique of the New Right. Their ‘Third Way’ philosophy was a mix of socialist and capitalist approaches – generating wealth AND reducing society’s inequalities. Here are some of their policies:
- Greater state intervention in the form of ‘Welfare to Work’ programmes and tax credits for those on lower incomes to get people back into employment and out of the underclass.
- Schemes aimed at disadvantaged parents such as Sure Start.
- Policies aimed to be ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’.
HOWEVER, some New Labour policies have shown the influence of New Right views. For example, New Labour regards the married couple as normally the best place to being up children.
Application of The New Right / Education
- The New Right is in favour of the ‘marketisation’ of education - choice in schools, league tables, competition etc. They believe that this will raise standards.
- The New Right see high divorce rates as undesirable as it undermines the nuclear family and helps to create an underclass of female lone parents, leaving boys without a role model. .
- The New Right are in favour of only one family type; the conventional patriarchal nuclear family.
- New Right views are reflected in fundamentalist groups such as the New Christian Right. They support their traditionalist views and believe that a wider uptake of their beliefs will lead to a healthier society.
- Single parent families are believed to be a key cause of crime because young children grow up without a male role model. This link is believed to be particularly strong amongst blacks.
- Over generous welfare provision is believed to create a culture of dependency amongst the underclass who then often turn to crime to supplement their welfare benefits.
- Functionalist theories are reflected in the New Right view of the need for strong social control, such as cracking down hard on criminals and deviants, as suggested by the right realist approaches to crime prevention. These New Right views echo functionalist concerns with the maintenance of social order through socialisation, reinforcement of a value consensus and the prevention of deviance.
Crit Points /
- Although The New Right provide a useful insight into the workings of society the theory is ideologically driven. Therefore, the theory is reductionist as it fails to take into account competing theoretical ideas.
- Postmodernists are critical of The New Right meta-narrative as they claim to have a ‘totalising’ (all encompassing) theory of society. Postmodernists maintain that rival narratives should be considered for a full account of social life.
Real Life Applications: