Neoliberalism and Work-Related Risks: Individual or Collective Responsibilization?

Based on a representative sample of the Dutch population (N=2,467) we test four hypotheses about how utilitarian individualism influences the responsibilization of work-related risks (i.e. the risk of dropping out of work because of unemployment, disability, or sickness). The risk-society hypothesis understands utilitarian individualism as a laisser-faire ideological orientation and assumes it to lead to individual responsibilization. The blame-culture hypothesis conceives utilitarian individualists as consumer-citizens and predicts the reverse – that those concerned expect to be protected by the government. The resentment hypothesis assumes that particularly utilitarian individualists with a vulnerable labor-market position individualize responsibility, because they distrust those who share their fate more than others do. The narcissism hypothesis reverses this logic, because it assumes that utilitarian individualists’ narcissistic self-centeredness entices them to make others responsible for their own risks. The two hypotheses predicting an individualization of work-related risk due to utilitarian individualism are both confirmed, whereas the two hypotheses predicting it to result in their collectivization are both rejected.