Disarming the ideological conflict between the Centre‐Left and the New Right: The implementation of UK social security policy

Abstract

I argue that the Centre‐Left and the New Right use similar normative justifications for social security policy but that even slight differences in philosophical emphasis may still result in large differences in policy outcomes. Both positions construct a similar lexicographic ordering of values, where New Right type distinctions are made between the deserving and undeserving (acting as a first principle), after which, if the former is proven, this allows for a Centre‐Left type entitlement to benefit based on relative understandings of need (acting as a second principle). Nevertheless, there can still exist slight differences in value commitment between these broad ideological positions—differences that may have a radical impact on the lives of certain groups of people when these value commitments find expression in policy implementation.