Paradise postponed? The Department of National Heritage and political hegemony

Abstract

This article considers the effect upon citizens of the introduction of the Department of National Heritage following the general election of April 1992. Heralded as a significant stage in the growing relevance to ,Britain of the emergent leisure industry, the paper finds inconsisten cies which suggest an altogether less prosaic objective. For rather than emphasising or underpinning its traditional welfare role, the Depart ment has signified a new prominence for leisure, as a central element of new right politics. By implication, the government has been able to link the attainment of a leisured society, as the epitome of post-indus trialism, with the limited rationality of the market, thereby recon structing former citizen rights claims for access to leisure activities as new market opportunities. The article concludes that the existence of institutions such as the Department of National Heritage are predi cated on a perceived need by governments to legitimate their policy stance. In Britain, this has involved the increasing binary division of society into 'good' and 'deviant' citizens, with the material wealth and freedom of the former secured through the suppression of the latter. However, as the economic boom of the 1980s has given way to recession, the attainment of the hedonistic paradise of postmodernity, signified by the Department and experienced by the 'good' citizens, has been postponed, creating an ever-growing tide of discontent with the ineffectiveness of the new Department.