Citizens of the Market: The Un-Political Theory of the New Right

An analysis of New Right theorist's attacks on government provision of welfare reveals their commitment to maintaining a strong public/private distinction and their insistence on pre-political conditions for liberal citizenship. While drawing explicitly on the liberal language of negative liberty, their attack also implicitly suggests a notion of positive liberty based on economic independence, which for most citizens comes with paid employment. The New Right also distinguishes itself from classical liberalism by suggesting that the market has the capacity to distribute these conditions for full citizenship equally. Yet, as feminists and many economists have maintained, the labor market continues to exclude many individuals from paid employment, leaving the New Right definition of full citizenship an exclusive one.