Liberalism And Crime

LiberalismCrimePODPBK.qxd 5/27/08 4:09 PM Page 1 SULLIVAN Law • Political Science “Liberalism and Crime: The British Experience is a wide-ranging and fascinating chronicle that will ultimately repay perseverance.” —Crime Prevention and Community Safety Robert R. Sullivan is professor emeritus at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. For orders and information please contact the publisher LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 Lanham, Maryland 20706 1-800-462-6420 www.lexingtonbooks.com LIBERALISM AND CRIME In Liberalism and Crime, Robert R. Sullivan offers an alternate way of looking at liberalism, using the usurpation of the welfare state in Britain by a free market–oriented economy as his crucible. Not content with the academic interpretation of liberalism as an offshoot of analytic philosophy, Sullivan has woven together a convincing demonstration that liberalism is born out of an alternative approach—one based in active thought and reasonable argument. The tapestry of this study touches on the breakup of British Marxism, the influence of crime on British polity, and the arguments of Ronald Clarke against “medical criminology.” Shifting societal responsibility onto the individual citizen, this new, alternative model of liberalism was fully ushered in by the rise of Margaret Thatcher and continued with Tony Blair and the New Labour movement in the 1990s. Because similar shifts occurred in the United States simultaneously, this argument should be of interest to both general American and British readers, as well as academics in political theory, cultural studies, criminology, and British studies. LIBERALISM AND CRIME The British Experience ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-2928-9 ISBN-10: 0-7391-2928-7 ROBERT R. SULLIVAN ... Vlll Selected Bibliography Index About the Author Contents x Preface The transition has been a kind of purification, a shift away from the welfare state and welfare liberalism, which sought to liberate individuals, toward a kind of liberalism that seeks to limit the power of the state and (perhaps) strengthen rule of law, all in the name of protecting established individuals. The latter figure is usually described in terms of pounds and pence, or in the language of the cousins, dollars and cents. I call the more recent ideology neoliberalism, but I don't claim to be original in the use of the term. It describes the state of affairs introduced into England by Margaret Thatcher and into the United States by Ronald Reagan and continued by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. I might be slightly more original with the term welfare liberalism. I have been told that it is an oxymoron. My defense has been stated above. I think it is entirely liberal to argue for the expansion of state powers for the sake of conquering hunger, ignorance, poverty, and whatever other afflictions the lower orders may have. What needs to be made clear is that these kinds of initiatives by no means amount to socialism. The latter entails state ownership of the means of production, and since the Butskellite compromises of the late 1950s, the Labour Party has not aspired to such goals. David Marquand is entirely correct in pointing out that Britain does not even have a socialist party.' It has a Labour Party, and at least until recently, that party's mandate was to cut a better deal for the trade unions at the big collective bargaining arrangement called Whitehall. Between Attlee and Blair, the Labour P