Personal Responsibility: Why It Matters

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Personal responsibility is now very much on the political agenda. But what is personal responsibility Why do we care about it And what, if anything, should governments do to promote it This book explores the idea that individuals bear a special responsibility for the success or failure of their own lives looking at philosophical theories, political ideologies, and public opinion on the subject. Alexander Brown lends support to a recent move in political philosophy to deal with real world problems and shows how philosophy can contribute to public democratic debate on pressing issues of personal responsibility. Articulate, provocative, and stimulating, this timely book will make a significant contribution to one of the most important debates of our time.

Reviews

This important and timely book tackles one of the central issues in the relationship between the state and the individual: what is the proper scope of personal responsibility and how can it be supported through social arrangements Responses to this question have widespread implications for welfare policy, criminal justice and healthcare and map one of the key fault lines in British politics. The book is essential reading for political philosophers, social policy specialists and anyone with an interest in the future of the welfare state. -- Tania Burchardt, London School of Economics, UK
This is clear, comprehensive, original and engagingly written study of the role responsibility might play in our moral and political lives. Expertly drawing on sophisticated political philosophy, the analysis of the reality and rhetoric of politics and empirical survey research, Alexander Brown sets out a new right to personal responsibility' - that everyone should have the right to exercise responsibility for their lives - and considers how this might be implemented through the use of citizens' juries. Brown has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the idea of responsibility and its implications. -- Jonathan Wolff, University College London, UK
Captivating and topical -- Sunday Business Post
As the philosopher Alexander Brown shows ... the subject is more slippery than politicians imagine. -- London Review of Books
Author piece, November 2009. -- Philosophy Now
A nicely lucid and comprehensive treatment of personal responsibility as it appears in Western liberal democracies ... an interesting and engaging book. -- Times Higher Education
"Brown explores the concept that individuals bear a responsibility for the success or failure of their own lives, why personal responsibility matters, how it relates to social policy, and the role of the government, considering philosophical theories, political ideologies in the UK and US, the thoughts of social policy experts, and public opinion on the topic in Britain and other European countries, then applying these ideas to contemporary issues of unemployment, health, drug abuse, and personal debt and financial rewards in Britain. He concludes with tools for settling issues of personal responsibility, like citizens' juries." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.

Author Bio

Alexander Brown is a Teaching Fellow in Political Theory at the School of Public Policy, University College London, UK. He is the author of Ronald Dworkin's Theory of Equality (Forthcoming, Palgrave Macmillan).