The political economy of disablement: a sociological analysis

Gibilisco, Peter (2005) The political economy of disablement: a sociological analysis. PhD thesis, Department of Political Science, The University of Melbourne.

Abstract

A central political and social debate confronting societies around the world concerns the form and content of social democracy. The collapse of communism, the advent of globalization, the transformation of the social experiences in life, and other profound social, political and economic changes, have all created a perceived need within social democratic circles to rethink the policies and theoretical thought of the left. Social democratic politics is thus in a state of critical self-reflection. More precisely, in Australia, pragmatic social democracy has faced profound challenges with the emergence both of neo-liberal models of society and policy, and with the development of third way social democracy which seeks to combine the social justice concerns of pragmatic social democracy with the market based economics of neo-liberalism. To explore the dynamic contests between these different approaches, this thesis provides a critical exploration of the actual and potential contributions that policies modeled on pragmatic and third way social democracy, and on neo-liberalism, make to the lives of people with disabilities. People with disabilities continue to be socially excluded in capitalist societies including Australia, the UK, and the US, and as a result a key challenge for social democratic approaches is how to increase the social inclusion of people with disabilities. To explore these processes, the thesis asks three major questions: Research Question One: What constitute the key struggles within contemporary social democracy, in the context of people with disabilities? Research Question Two: How do people with disabilities experience central aspects of social and political life, and social policy, namely employment, education and service provision? Research Question Three: What do the experiences of people with disabilities reveal about the respective capacities of pragmatic social democracy, neo-liberalism and the third way to deliver social justice? Through a combination of textual and document analysis, personal experience narratives, and interviews with key thinkers, this thesis explores these questions with a primary focus on Australia, although lessons from the US and the UK, in particular, are also explored. Through the research, the thesis concludes that people with disabilities continue to experience profound social exclusion in key areas of life including employment, education and access to service provision. More specifically, while third way social democratic approaches appear on the surface to provide a means for empowerment with their rhetoric of social justice and social inclusion, the ultimate reliance of third way approaches on market based economic approaches of neo-liberalism severely limits what the third way can achieve for people with disabilities. In contrast, models of pragmatic social democracy, in particular as developed by Hugh Stretton and Marta Russell, provide at the least a potential means of empowerment for people with disabilities by recognizing the need for significant government intervention through social policy and other measures in the workings of the market economy. Such government intervention provides a space in which people with disabilities are able to mobilize to work towards empowerment and social justice through their own actions in areas including employment, education and access to service provision.