| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cambridge Journal of Economics 27:465-477 (2003)
Copyright © 2003 Cambridge Political Economy Society
Commentary |
Contractual governance and illiberal contracts: some problems of contractualism as an instrument of behaviour management by agencies of government
Respectively Professor of Employment Law and Professor of Politics in the University of Oxford, and Fellows of St John's College and Nuffield College, Oxford.
Address for correspondence: Nuffield College, Oxford OX1 3JP, UK; email Mark.Freedland{at}sjc.ox.ac.uk and desmond.king{at}nuffield.ox.ac.uk
Abstract
This paper considers the significance, as a matter both of political and of legal analysis, of the considerable and growing use in the UK of ostensibly contractual or contract-like arrangements between public authorities and members of society whose behaviour it is judged necessary to manage and control. We argue that these new arrangements often amount to instruments of illiberal policy, both in procedure and implementation. Drawing on a model of contractual relations found in social work policy, we assess the manifestation of contract-like features in recent government policy toward young offenders and workfare participants. We then provide a detailed application of the illiberal argument in respect of the contractual arrangement promoted in the UK Government's New Deal programme and Jobseekers' Allowance. We conclude that illiberal tendencies in these workfare schemes may have unintended but nonetheless significant brutalising effects upon both participants and administrators.
Key Words: Liberalism • Contracts • Workfare • Illiberalism • Rights
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  A. Crawford Networked governance and the post-regulatory state?: Steering, rowing and anchoring the provision of policing and security Theoretical Criminology, November 1, 2006; 10(4): 449 - 479. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|