For a political economy of moral panics

Abstract

A case is made for a political economy of moral panics and moral regulation. After a brief discussion of the political economy of alcohol regulation, the focus shifts to the culture-of-fear thesis. Four writers (Glassner, Altheide, Furedi and Bauman) are interrogated for what they have to say about the culture of fear. Examined are its definition and manifestations; its historical genesis; its key agents and their motivations; how the culture of fear is constructed and disseminated; and its implications for governmental action and public attitudes. Six propositions are identified as constituting a consensus about the political economy of the culture of fear: (1) a safer society produces paradoxically more fear; (2) this fear is different from previous types of fear; (3) fear is symbolically constructed; (4) the media and popular culture are vital to sustaining fear; (5) fear distorts and misrecognizes social realities; (6) fear generates hostility to outsiders. Such a perspective revisits the original project of radical criminology. It is argued that moral panics and moral regulation analysis should be informed by the adherence of political economy to the importance of historical change, seeing society as a totality, insisting on morality as a focus and position, and through a sustained commitment to praxis.