Uneasy Neoliberal Governance in a Low-Trust Society: Barriers to Responsibilisation in the Czech Republic

Abstract

In our research, we examined how, if at all, a neoliberal responsibilisation of individuals is under way in the Czech Republic – a society characterised by low trust in its institutional system. Drawing on Giesler and Veresiu’s model of three-step consumer responsibilisation, we carried out a qualitative analysis of data generated primarily through an originally designed card-matching game and individual interviews, further complemented with field observation. The findings revealed that distrust in market institutions is generally a barrier to responsibilisation of citizens, leading to several kinds of semi-responsibilised subjectivities instead: restrained subjectivity, partially neoliberally responsibilised subjectivity, and economically responsibilised subjectivity. Lack of confidence in established institutions may effectively weaken or change the process of neoliberal responsibilisation of individuals, in particular in non-economic areas such as the environment, health, and social solidarity.