The Reform of Public Services Under New Labour Narratives of Consumerism

The New Labour governments have rebuilt public services around the citizen-consumer: a choice-wielding individual disconnected from the political context of the welfare state. In their interactions with central and local government, citizens are recast as customers in search of satisfaction. Drawing on interviews conducted by the author with politicians, bureaucrats and citizens, alongside content analysis of government documents, the book explains how New Labour has consumerized public services and contributed to the anti-politics that it has widely decried.

CATHERINE NEEDHAM is a Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. She is the author of Citizen-Consumers: New Labour's Marketplace Democracy (2003).