| Abstrakt: |
This article presents political scientist Martin Durham's misreading of the author's position in an article published in the May 1992 edition of the periodical "Economy and Society." In the present article, the author presents a reply to Durham. The author reinstates that the focus of his piece was not moral conservative organizations as such but the New Right as Government. The main aim of the piece was to challenge the view commonly held among many in Left and feminist circles, that the U.S. administration led by President Ronald Reagan and British administration led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher have been successful in strengthening the traditional family and the sexual division of labour that is assumed to accompany it, to demonstrate how few objectives of family supporters have been achieved and to suggest reasons why the pro-family rhetoric and commitment that characterized political discourses of both Reagan and Thatcher did not materialize in a coherent family policy. Author's arguments hinged on demonstrating that the philosophical and moral complexity of the political constellation which has become known as the New Right was as critical a factor as political, economic and social constraints in the environment in which the New Right as a government had to operate. |
