Book contents
- Hijacked
- Hijacked
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Dual Nature of the Protestant Work Ethic and the Birth of Utilitarianism
- 2 Locke and the Progressive Work Ethic
- 3 How Conservatives Hijacked the Work Ethic and Turned It Against Workers
- 4 Welfare Reform, Famine, and the Ideology of the Conservative Work Ethic
- 5 The Progressive Work Ethic (1): Smith, Ricardo, and Ricardian Socialists
- 6 The Progressive Work Ethic (2): J. S. Mill
- 7 The Progressive Work Ethic (3): Marx
- 8 Social Democracy as the Culmination of the Progressive Work Ethic
- 9 Hijacked Again: Neoliberalism as the Return of the Conservative Work Ethic
- 10 Conclusion: What Should the Work Ethic Mean for Us Today?
- Acknowledgments
- Major Works Cited
- Notes
- Index
- The Seeley Lectures
3 - How Conservatives Hijacked the Work Ethic and Turned It Against Workers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 September 2023
- Hijacked
- Hijacked
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Dual Nature of the Protestant Work Ethic and the Birth of Utilitarianism
- 2 Locke and the Progressive Work Ethic
- 3 How Conservatives Hijacked the Work Ethic and Turned It Against Workers
- 4 Welfare Reform, Famine, and the Ideology of the Conservative Work Ethic
- 5 The Progressive Work Ethic (1): Smith, Ricardo, and Ricardian Socialists
- 6 The Progressive Work Ethic (2): J. S. Mill
- 7 The Progressive Work Ethic (3): Marx
- 8 Social Democracy as the Culmination of the Progressive Work Ethic
- 9 Hijacked Again: Neoliberalism as the Return of the Conservative Work Ethic
- 10 Conclusion: What Should the Work Ethic Mean for Us Today?
- Acknowledgments
- Major Works Cited
- Notes
- Index
- The Seeley Lectures
Summary
A century after Locke’s mature political writings, controversy over policy toward the working classes came roaring back. This was the occasion for thinkers to develop both sides of the work ethic in light of changing economic and cultural conditions. One side, represented by Adam Smith and more radical thinkers including assorted Ricardian socialists, Marquis de Condorcet, Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and Marx, advanced the progressive, pro-worker dimensions of the work ethic that Locke had so skillfully promoted in most of his mature writing. The other side, led by Joseph Priestley, Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Malthus, Edmund Burke, William Paley, Richard Whately, and Nassau Senior, followed the spirit of Locke’s suspicious and stinting poor-law reform proposal. This split reflected two large changes in British society near the turn of the nineteenth century: a much sharper division between workers and capitalists caused by the Industrial Revolution, and increasing secularization.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- HijackedHow Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic against Workers and How Workers Can Take It Back, pp. 63 - 99Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023