Eight years ago I wrote an article in Prospect (January 1997) attacking the idea that ever-increasing consumer choice was a panacea for happiness. I hardly addressed the extension of the notion of choice to the public sector because it did not occur to me it might become a serious policy prescription.
What did I know? Today, less than a decade later, the extension of individual choice in the public services is one of the main policy initiatives of this third- term Labour government. In Labour’s first term there were few harbingers of this. The government chose, for good reason, not to increase spending for two years. Since effective choice requires an excess of provision over demand—that is to say it requires increased spending—it was not high on the agenda. But the second term saw the descent of a Niagara of public money, into health and education in particular.
This did not lead to a complacent defence of the public services as they had been run. The lessons of America’s “new public management” had been absorbed: there is state failure as well as market failure. What could readily be targeted was targeted. What could sensibly be privatised was privatised. Internal markets did what internal markets do best.If you are a subscriber, please log in »
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