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Responsible Citizens

Individuals, Health and Policy under Neoliberalism

Sally Baker author B J Brown author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Anthem Press

Published:15th Oct '13

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

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Responsible Citizens cover

Reveals how rising emphasis on the individual has gone hand in hand with an increase in subtle authoritarianism – particularly within public services – such that a kind of ‘governance through responsibility’ is today being enforced upon the population.

The individual has never been more important in society – in almost every sphere of public and private life, the individual is sovereign. Yet the importance and apparent power assigned to the individual is not all that it seems. As ‘Responsible Citizens’ investigates via its UK-based case studies, this emphasis on the individual has gone hand in hand with a rise in subtle authoritarianism, which has insinuated itself into the government of the population. Whilst present throughout the public services, this authoritarianism is most conspicuous in the health and social welfare sectors, such that a kind of ‘governance through responsibility’ is today enforced upon the population.

‘[T]he originality of this book is located in its thoroughgoing dismantling of the health and social care system. Little escapes Brown and Baker’s examination. […] [A] a refreshing departure from traditional economic and political accounts of neoliberalism.’ —Cherry M. Miller, ‘Political Studies Review’


‘The strength of the book is that it tries to reveal how a new and similar rationality is emerging in individuals and different spheres of society simultaneously.’ —Per H. Jensen, ‘Journal of Social Policy’

ISBN: 9781783080458

Dimensions: 229mm x 153mm x 26mm

Weight: 454g

226 pages