Neo-Liberalism and Social Policy

This article explores President George W. Bush's ‘ownership society’ blueprint in comparative and historical perspective. By taking the ‘ownership society’ seriously, it is possible to understand how it is rooted in the US's cultural repertoire, and how it offers a coherent neo-liberal discourse aimed at constructing the ‘need to reform’ existing social policy legacies in the sense of a greater reliance on private savings and home ownership. Although grounded in the US repertoire, President Bush's ‘ownership society’ is inspired by a foreign model: Thatcher's ‘popular capitalism’, another neo-liberal blueprint that featured a similar celebration of personal ownership. Discussing Thatcherism briefly before analysing the debate over President Bush's ‘ownership society’ in the fields of housing and pensions, this article explores the relationship between ideational processes and institutional legacies in policy-making.