Work and Dependency

The Work & Dependency research group examines the relationship and tensions between a culture of work, self-reliance, and self-governance and the role of government programs.

This project will build on the work by Hayek Program scholars on self-governance as well as on the failures and unintended consequences of government programs. This project will explore the importance of self-governance and the challenge of dependency; how the balance between work, social associations, and government programs changed over time in the US and how this change manifests in levels of individual responsibility and/or social dependency among the citizenry; and how a more active state erodes the common conventions of community interdependence necessary to sustain a free society.