Public participation and public service modernisation: learning from New Labour?

Fenwick, John and McMillan, Janice (2012) Public participation and public service modernisation: learning from New Labour? International Journal of Public Administration, 35 (6). pp. 367-378. ISSN 0190-0692

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Abstract

The public participation agenda is a significant element of public service reform in Europe and beyond. This article examines how citizen participation in local public services was conceived and enacted under successive New Labor governments in the UK during the period 1997–2010. It is suggested that the emphasis on public participation was central to the ethos of New Labor. This accounts for the persistence of the participation agenda even in the face of scant empirical evidence that specific engagement and empowerment initiatives were successful. Significantly, there was no single New Labor participation narrative. There were instead several distinct strands, drawing variously from the Party's received traditions of State welfarism, corporatist central-local relations, municipal socialism, Blairite managerialism, and, lastly, mutual cooperativism. The article assesses the legacy of New Labor and public participation in the UK before drawing wider conclusions relating to international experience.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	local government, public participation, new labor, public service modernization, cooperative schools
Subjects:	L200 Politics L400 Social Policy
Department:	Faculties > Business and Law > Newcastle Business School
Depositing User:	Helen Pattison
Date Deposited:	23 May 2012 15:49
Last Modified:	19 Nov 2019 10:04
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/7379

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