Political ideology and leisure policy in the United Kingdom

Abstract

There is no well-developed literature on the relationship between leisure policy and political ideology. Three political ideologies — liberalism, conservatism and socialism — are examined for their core values and social policy implications. An attempt is made to construct liberal, conservative and socialist leisure policies, deduced from their ideological positions and current writings and policy statements of key thinkers. It is concluded that leisure is best characterized as falling within a social democratic tradition of policy outcomes which reflect pragmatic and ideological compromises.