ABSTRACT
This chapter represents an attempt to reflect on the themes of individualism and community both as they have defined the space of argument within which competing ideologies have sought to develop alternative conceptions of society in New Zealand. In the first section of the chapter, headed ‘Community: True and False’ — a play on a title employed by Hayek — we examine these ideologies and their policy effects. In particular, we review and evaluate the neo-liberal view of society as ‘the free society’ and the way in which such a view rests squarely on Hayek's writings. In the following two sections we interpret the ‘reforms’ of education in New Zealand, which have been carried out since the late 1980s, in terms of the prevailing ideology of individualism. What we have called the ‘privatization of tertiary education’ and the deregulation of secondary education are presented as two examples of the reform of education which exemplify the New Right's response to the so-called crisis of the Welfare State and the consequent restructuring of the public sector. The notion of the ‘politics of difference’ which concerns the final section of the chapter, is one that is seen as avoiding the exhaustive dichotomy set up between the opposing ideologies of individualism and community. The first metaphor expresses neo-liberal values and is committed firmly to the market, the second works as a metaphor for social democracy, signalling the Welfare State and the value of public participation in policy formulation and delivery. Together they share a common logic which denies the principle of difference. The final section sets out the way in which it is possible to move beyond a language restricted to a simple, polar and exhaustive opposition to a language of philosophy and policy which recognizes the ‘politics of difference’.
