ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the thesis of British National Health Service (NHS) in the period since 1979. It examines citizenship in the classic NHS (1948-79) as the analytical template of social-democratic citizenship before exploring the neo-republican citizenship thesis for the period since 1979 under the Conservative (1979-97) and New Labour (1997-2010) governments. Until about 1980 Marshallian citizenship, with a stress on rights, was dominant in the NHS, but that there has been a more recent shift to 'active communitarian citizenship', a complex mix of communitarianism, republicanism, community development and consumerism. There have been documents on 'The Health of the Nation' and 'Our Healthier Nation' and policies such as healthy living campaigns and smoking bans, but their importance and consistency have varied. Neo-republican citizenship would move the boundary towards the market and privatize risk. The language of 'rights' continues to be important under both Conservative and New Labour governments.
