The Reform of Public Services under New Labour: Narratives of Consumerism
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If you do not receive an email within 10 minutes, your email address may not be registered, and you may need to create a new Wiley Online Library account. If the address matches an existing account you will receive an email with instructions to retrieve your username. Read the full text. Tools Request permission Export citation Add to favorites Track citation. Share Give access Share full text access. Share full text access. Please review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article. Volume 16 , Issue 2 March Pages Johnson eds. London: Lawrence and Wishart pages.
Newman London: Sage. Clarke N. Barnett P. Cloke and A.
The Consumer in Public Services
Malpass Newman N. Smith E. Vidler and L. Westmarland Esping-Andersen G. Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press. Finlayson A. Making Sense of New Labour. London: Lawrence and Wishart. Frank T. New York: Anchor Books. Gabriel Y. Lang Harvey D. A Brief History of Neoliberalism.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hilton M. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
This paper seeks to demonstrate that this narrative masks considerable continuity between the two periods, indeed over the past thirty-five years. It begins by demonstrating that the change of direction in economic policy, though significant, was not as unambiguous as it may appear.
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It then notes that, in any case, this change did not lead to any diminution of state power. On the contrary, as the private sector has come to play an ever-greater role in the delivery of public services, the British State has further extended its already significant role in legitimising and facilitating the marketisation of public services, thus promoting corporate welfare. Meanwhile, the demos have found themselves disempowered, regardless of the discourse of localism and the promised decentralisation of power from the centre.
This paper aims to challenge these claims of novelty and demonstrate the essential continuity in this field over the past thirty-five years and more, despite clear differences of style and emphasis. It begins by challenging claims that New Labour and recent Conservative-led governments have been characterised by the dichotomy between profligacy and austerity. It focuses on the extremely important role played by the British State in manipulating the public discourse to create hegemonic consensus about the most recent crisis of capitalism and the need for austerity.
Although this change has been underpinned by the huge increase in power of the private sector, there has been no shrinking of the state in favour of the latter either. Indeed, it is argued that the very concept of a shrinking state is a misleading and simplistic one which tends to automatically equate spending power and political power. In reality, the State continues to fulfil key political functions, not least with regard to public spending.
Conservative leaders certainly sought to reaffirm such perceptions in an attempt to cast themselves as the Party to be trusted with the public finances and to frame the crisis as being fiscal rather than financial in nature. Firstly, increases in public spending largely focussed on key areas such as the NHS, education and transport. New Labour spending on some areas, notably social security and to a lesser extent defence, was actually lower than under previous Conservative governments.
As a number of experts have pointed out, the British government, unlike countries such as Greece, could still borrow at very favourable rates in the international financial markets in its own currency and could, in any event, always print more money. Osborne pledged to cut public sector borrowing from Spending on public services such as health continued, and indeed continue, to increase even though NHS spending is set to fall significantly as a percentage of GDP.
The average cuts for unprotected departments, such as work and pensions, were severe — they have been estimated at over 20 per cent for the period to A number of reports have shown that it is the poorest that have borne the brunt of austerity measures such as the limitation of social care, child care, youth services, housing services, and legal advice. Indeed, for many economists, austerity was not even necessary and may in fact have delayed economic recovery in the UK. This assertion would seem to be supported by the fact that the Conservative Party actually supported Labour spending plans up until the crisis hit in How was this done?
Indeed, the State played a vital role in creating hegemonic consent around the austerity project.
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Clarke and Newman have explained with alacrity how this was done. Secondly, the crisis was also personalised, presented as one caused by the irresponsibility of individual citizens to live within their means and be self-sufficient.
The Reform of Public Services Under New Labour. Narratives of Consumerism The Context of Public Service Reform under New Labour: Marketising the. THE REFORM OF PUBLIC SERVICES UNDER NEW LABOUR: NARRATIVES OF CONSUMERISM ‐ by Catherine Needham. Catherine M.
Again, this policy was presented as a point of rupture from the overbearing, authoritarian State that many believed had come to characterise the New Labour years. The risk is that this will leave some local councils impoverished whilst councils in areas with thriving businesses will end up wealthier, despite promises of alternative sources of funding for the former. The Thatcher governments were notoriously dirigiste , especially with regard to local government, imposing enterprise zones and the poll tax against the will of local councils, implementing swingeing spending cuts and abolishing the Greater London Council GLC and the six metropolitan county councils.
The Blair governments came to power criticising top-down control of local government and promising to give them more flexibility to respond to local needs and provide the services that citizens and communities want. The Cameron-led government promised to take this agenda of citizen empowerment further in a move that seemed to represent a real rupture from previous Conservative governments.
As practice, citizenship is concerned with how those designated as citizens behave and are treated, including the rights they enjoy and their obligations towards other citizens and the government Walzer, , p. On the other hand, the multiple recent fails of crisis management during episodes such as the H1N1 outbreak in and , or the E. Under the new structure, budgets based on the size of the "client portfolios" are similar to the sickness fund models of Continental Europe and private health insurance in general. One important and recurring theme in the literature on the changing state is the trajectory of capitalist development, including how it should be understood and theorised; the stability of the welfare state; and the potential for progressive social change. What role has business in advancing policy change? Different policy actors apply varying concepts of the customer, some based on a strong notion of choice, other based on the rights of users, and a third set emphasising courtesy and respect. Malpass
Meanwhile, the role of parents may be reduced — a government white paper dating from March even suggested removing parents from school governing boards in favour of professionals with experience in business and finance. Following the dissolution of the State-run Probation Service in June , the private and voluntary sectors were encouraged to become involved in service provision. Yet, despite the fact that voluntary sector services, based as they are in the local community, are well-placed to provide specialist services, they are increasingly crowded out of the market.
In practice, community services find it extremely difficult to compete for bids on a level playing field with the private sector. Local initiatives continue to be directed by a strong central state and are often stifled by a powerful private sector.
The private sector is accountable only to government and, as an increasingly influential governmental partner, it is questionable to what extent accountability is respected in practice. Increased power for the private sector does seem to have led to a loss of power for the public, but the same cannot be said of the State.
On the contrary, both the State and the private sector have extended their power conterminously.
The growth of the public services industry provides a highly illustrative example. From privatisation to PFI the private finance initiative , the government has helped to sell the merits of private-sector involvement in public service delivery, presenting it as a way of improving service quality and promoting consumer choice.
The discourse of austerity provided further justification, as finding alternative sources of funding for services was presented as a necessity in the context of massive public spending cuts.