New Right: Charles Murray and the 'underclass'.

The first 200 words of this essay...

New Right: Charles Murray and the 'underclass'.

During the 1980's and 1990's New Right Thinkers influenced government political agenda's, particularly the Conservative party led by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980's. The New Right ideology stresses free market principles, self-reliance and individual responsibility. Thatcher's New Right government portrayed and practiced an anti-collectivist approach to welfare and was concerned with 'rolling back the frontiers of the state'. The New Right argue that the cost of state welfare interferes with economic growth and has created a 'dependency culture' that are reliant upon welfare benefits. Marsland (1989) argues that this is what led to the economic decline in Britain during the 1970's and 1980's.

The New Right are primarily concerned with reducing welfare expenditure to free up the economy and encourage free enterprise and economic growth. The idea behind this was to create a 'trickle down' effect, as the growth of economy would lead to a rise in living standards, right down to those on the lowest incomes.

The Thatcher administration was responsible for privatising national industries, public services and support services. For example, street cleaning and school meal provision were subject to contractual tender.

The effect of de-nationalisation