• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Market Values and Youth Political Engagement in the UK: Towards an Agenda for Exploring the Psychological Impacts of Neo-Liberalism
  • Contributor: Allsop, Bradley; Briggs, Jacqueline; Kisby, Ben
  • Published: MDPI AG, 2018
  • Published in: Societies, 8 (2018) 4, Seite 95
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.3390/soc8040095
  • ISSN: 2075-4698
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: This article seeks to develop a preliminary analysis of how neo-liberal thought and policies have impacted on youth political engagement in the UK, specifically by attempting to understand how macro-economic and other public policies can influence the individual psychology of citizens and their subsequent behaviour. The article sets out a clear definition and explanation of neo-liberalism and summarises six key neo-liberal impacts particularly pertinent to political engagement: marketisation and the tension this brings with democratic norms; responsibilisation narratives; increased inequality; the changing character of the state through privatisation and deregulation; the preference among policy-makers for ‘expert rule’; and repression of labour. It argues that the main psychological effects that result, and which underpin and define the personal experience of neo-liberal policy, are declines in political efficacy and increases in individualism, the ramifications of which for political engagement are discussed.
  • Access State: Open Access