ABSTRACT
Leisure has become a political issue. Political philosophies are expressions of how groups of people would like to see, and intend or hope to shape, the future. The views of the political centre and left are discussed in more detail later in the chapter but first we consider the views of the political right. Again the political belief in the private enterprise system comes through, with such statements as: ‘Private enterprise is the backbone of the industry and it has never looked to Government for handouts’, and, ‘The success story of tourism and leisure is essentially a flowering of private enterprise’. If a society was unable to produce adequate output of these more ‘serious’ products and only produced leisure services then it would be in trouble. The French sociologist Andre Gorz is a Marxist in his outlook but believes that the left is mistaken in continuing to ignore the importance of leisure.
