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MORAL ENTREPRENEURS

To be in the business of persuading the society to make policy from particular moral viewpoints. In symbolic interactionism (or labeling theory) social policy is not seen as the implementation of a shared consensus about what is best. Rather the society is viewed as consisting of a plurality of understandings of what is best. In order for social policy to arise, some individual or group has to initiate a social movement whose task is to articulate a definition of a social problem such that a desired social policy is consistent with this definition of the problem. These individual or groups are referred to as moral entrepreneurs. MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), the pro-life movement, the gun lobby, anti-pornography groups, Emily Murphy, and the anti-tobacco lobby would all be examples of moral entrepreneurs.

Last updated 2002--0-9-

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© Robert Drislane, Ph.D. and Gary Parkinson, Ph.D.
The online version of this dictionary is a product of
Athabasca University and
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*This social science dictionary has 1000
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