Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Citizenship and ideology in David Cameron's 'Big Society'
AU - Maschette, L.C.
AU - Garnett, M.
PY - 2023/1/12
Y1 - 2023/1/12
N2 - As the main idea of the governments of David Cameron after 2010, the Big Society intended to place civil society at the heart of the Conservative agenda while also serving as a rhetorical tool to distance the ‘modern’ Conservative party from the Thatcherite legacy. In comparing Margaret Thatcher’s view on citizenship to the one upheld by David Cameron, this article argues that despite many similarities, Cameron broke with Thatcher in the way he reinterpreted the nature of the state, as well as how he planned to remake civil society and to inspire ‘active citizenship’. Unlike Thatcher, who believed that a dynamic civil society would spontaneously flourish once the state was reduced, Cameron believed that society could be rebuilt only through the work of the state. From this perspective, it is possible to reassess the academic debate about the Big Society and to regard it not as a means of justifying a smaller state at a time of economic austerity, but rather as an initiative which failed at least in part because of austerity.
AB - As the main idea of the governments of David Cameron after 2010, the Big Society intended to place civil society at the heart of the Conservative agenda while also serving as a rhetorical tool to distance the ‘modern’ Conservative party from the Thatcherite legacy. In comparing Margaret Thatcher’s view on citizenship to the one upheld by David Cameron, this article argues that despite many similarities, Cameron broke with Thatcher in the way he reinterpreted the nature of the state, as well as how he planned to remake civil society and to inspire ‘active citizenship’. Unlike Thatcher, who believed that a dynamic civil society would spontaneously flourish once the state was reduced, Cameron believed that society could be rebuilt only through the work of the state. From this perspective, it is possible to reassess the academic debate about the Big Society and to regard it not as a means of justifying a smaller state at a time of economic austerity, but rather as an initiative which failed at least in part because of austerity.
KW - Big Society
KW - Citizenship
KW - Conservatism
KW - Conservative Party
KW - David Cameron
KW - Margaret Thatcher
U2 - 10.1057/s41293-023-00225-2
DO - 10.1057/s41293-023-00225-2
M3 - Journal article
JO - British Politics
JF - British Politics
SN - 1746-918X
ER -