The individual has never been more important in society - in
almost every sphere of public and private life, the individual is
sovereign. Yet the importance and apparent power assigned to the
individual is not all that it seems. As 'Responsible Citizens'
investigates via its UK-based case studies, this emphasis on the
individual has gone hand in hand with a rise in subtle
authoritarianism, which has insinuated itself into the government
of the population. Whilst present throughout the public services,
this authoritarianism is most conspicuous in the health and social
welfare sectors, such that a kind of 'governance through
responsibility' is today enforced upon the population.
In the twenty-first century, individualism has come to pervade
the body politic, especially where health and social care are
concerned. Clients who may be at their most abject and vulnerable
are urged to take responsibility for themselves rather than further
burden the health and social care services. In some British
healthcare trusts, prosecutions are mounted against clients who
have lost their temper or who act inappropriately as a result of
their disorientation, under the guise of 'making them take
responsibility for their actions'. Citizens on the street in
Britain are likely to have responsibility thrust upon them through
mechanisms such as electronic surveillance and the burgeoning new
cohorts of community enforcement officers, as well as the police
themselves. Thus taking responsibility is never quite as simple as
it seems - being responsible demarcates the borderland between
autonomy and authority, and often equates to simply 'doing what
you're told'.
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