What are the seed beds of civic virtue? There are a variety of aspects of liberal society that can be seen as inculcating civic virtues, including the market, civic association, and the family. Let me briefly look at each of these theorists of the 'New Right' often praise the market as a school of civic virtue. Many Thatcher/Reagan reforms of the 1980s aimed to extend the scope of markets in people's lives through free trade, deregulation tax cuts, the weakening of trade unions, and reducing welfare benefits in part in order to teach people the virtues of initiative and self-reliance. Much of the recent right wing attack on the welfare state has been formulated precisely in terms of citizenship. The welfare state was said to promote passivity amongst the poor, creating a culture of dependency reducing citizens to passive dependants under bureaucratic tutelage. The market, by contrast, encourages people to be self-supporting. The new right believes that being self-supporting is not only an important civic virtue in itself, but also a precondition of being accepted as a full member of society. By failing to meet the obligation t support themselves, the long-term unemployed are a source of shame for society as well as themselves.
Which of the aspects given below is not a direction favoured by Thatcher/Reagan reforms?
Correct Answer: (c) Strong Trade unions
Solution:Many Thatcher/Reagan reforms of the 1980s aimed to extend the scope of markets in people's lives through free trade, deregulation tax cuts, the weakening of trade unions and reducing welfare benefits in part in order to teach people the virtues of initiative and self-reliance.