From the Law of Insurance to the Law of Lottery: An Exploration of the Changing Composition of the British State

Abstract

It is a commonplace assumption that human life has become increasingly risky, and the concept of risk has become increasingly central to social scientific investigation. In this paper the increasing riskiness of everyday life is explored through an analysis of the origins, development and crisis of the welfare state. It is argued that the development of the National Lottery is part of a fundamental recomposition of the state which reflects the decomposition of the ‘law of insurance’ as the organising principle of the Keynesian Welfare State and its replacement by the ‘law of lottery’ as the principle regulatory mechanism of the neo-liberal capitalist state

Coercive commodities and the political economy of involuntary consumption: The case of the gambling industries

“…Several authors have stressed the extent to which legalised gambling is a state project (e.g. Adams, 2008;Cosgrave and Klassen, 2001;Della Sala, 2004;Kingma, 1996, Neary andTaylor, 1998;Peck, 2017;Young, 2010Young, , 2011. Indeed, gambling legalisation has typically been pursued as a development strategy of the neoliberal state (Reith, 2013) or entrepreneurial city (Harvey, 1989) seeking to emulate the economic growth of Las Vegas in a process of 'casinopolitanism' (Luke, 2010) or 'Las Vegasization' (Kingma, 2010).…”

Qualitative Research in Gambling

“…This process can be observed in contemporary arguments which suggest that responsible citizens should establish private pension schemes rather than depend upon familial or government support networks. Likewise, national lotteries create a social incentive to bet, both as a chance to escape poverty and as a form of charitable activity to replace the withdrawal of state funding from the arts and social welfare (Neary and Taylor 2006). The moral landscapes of risk are reshaped and legitimate some arguments and products over others.…”

Gambling, Capitalism and the State

“…It became necessary to overturn the criticism of gambling as a morally questionable or economically unproductive activity in favour of its re-incorporation into the social world in terms of a morally-sound consumptive practice (Husz, 2002;Wilk, 2001). Consequently, an industry-state partnership was formed that reconstructed and promoted the notion of alea as a consumer product, an entertainment, a desirable expression of consumer sovereignty and choice (Neary and Taylor, 2006;Nibert, 2006). This involved the recasting of alea as a recreational and leisure choice through the commodification of gambling, particularly through en masse rebranding and relabelling of products (Cosgrave and Klassen, 2001).…”

“…Although it is regressive, gambling revenue is 'easy money' in that its legitimation, and in many cases nationalization (i.e. through lotteries), has transformed it into a form of voluntary taxation (Abt, 1996;Eadington, 1996;Neary and Taylor, 2006;Smith, 2006). Indeed, alea has become increasingly important to the finances of the state (Doughney, 2004;Livingstone, 2001;Livingstone and Woolley, 2007;Ronalds, 2002).…”

“…In this way social security risks are transferred from the state to the citizen -the citizen is no longer subject to state insurance but to the chance or alea of the global market. The key point is that the state has changed the form of its intervention accordingly, from an agônistic to an aleatory interventionist mode (Neary and Taylor, 2006). It is these new mechanisms that Neary and Taylor (2006) describe as the 'law of the lottery', a situation where the state no longer has the policy control to maintain aggregate levels of employment, resulting in the impacts of unemployment becoming a matter of chance.…”