Introduction

In political and policy rhetoric there is much talk of ‘playing by the rules’. For instance, in the US Barak Obama declared in his 2010 State of the Union address that, ‘we should … enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation’. Similarly, in the UK during his successful 2010 election campaign David Cameron claimed, ‘We’re fighting the fact that people who do the right thing, who work hard, who save, who play by the rules get hit by the system’. Six years earlier Tony Blair (2004) suggested that: ‘[People] want a community where the decent law-abiding majority are in charge; where those that play by the rules do well; and those that don’t, get punished’. According to this narrative ‘playing by the rules’ is a duty, a responsibility; and ‘doing the right thing’ is a prerequisite for contemporary citizenship that should be rewarded. There is a simple dichotomy between a law-abiding ‘us’ and a rule breaking ‘them’; and if Obama is right, playing by the rules may also be associated with a person's economic contribution.

The political use of this sort of narrative is very powerful. Politicians present a persuasive story where they are on the side of those who work hard, keep the law and obey society's various rules and standards – the mythical moral, or law-abiding, majority – while also being intolerant of those who do not adhere to these rules. The imagined connection between elected and electorate is maintained. But what does it mean to play by the rules in contemporary Western capitalist society? The idea of obeying the law – which is clearly a more formalised interpretation of playing by the rules – tends to be conflated with compliance with other ‘sub-legal’ norms and values which are perhaps morally, socially or economically (but not necessarily legally) required. However, as highlighted in the previous chapter, people who would regard themselves as law-abiding can also be guilty of breaking rules, be they breaches of law or other normative standards. Such breaches may include, for instance, motorway speeding, tax avoidance, minor fraud or unauthorised parking (Chenery et al, 1999; Karstedt and Farrall, 2006; Millie, 2008; Wells, 2012).