Remoulding Welfare Britain: The Philosophy of the Big Society in Cameron’s Britain

Abstract

Since the election of David Cameron as Conservative Party Leader there has been renewed interest in the functions and philosophies underpinning the responsibilities of the state. In 2008 David Cameron advanced the argument that Britain was ‘broken’. During the subsequent 2010 election campaign he put forward a remedy seeking to ‘fix’ Britain. David Cameron’s perception is that some social dynamics of our society are living without a comparable sense of social responsibility, seemingly devoid of any form of self control. Cameron’s narrative was in part enhanced by the several days of rioting in 2011. The subsequent rhetoric of the senior Coalition partner was given rocket boosters in selling this argument to the electorate, and that only the solutions offered by the Big Society could tackle this divide in Britain’s society.

Keywords: Big Society, Conservative, Liberalism, Localism, The State, Reform, Responsibility