What are the implications of the contract culture and its introduction into Britain's public services, for both the providers and users of services? The authors compare and contrast local government, health, and social care services, arguing that these changes involve a fundamental break with past understandings of public services management. This new study, based on original research in the field, examines the situation on the ground and identifies the prospects for future action.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, policy for inner city regeneration underwent a transformation from a reliance on central and local government activity and the use of public funds, to a much heavier dependence on private sector activities and private investment. In The Enterprise Culture and the Inner City, the authors offer a vigorous and critical investigation of government policy and, in response to the result of the 1992 general election and the implications of the Olympia and York Canary Wharf project, present a credible prediction for the future (or lack of future) of...

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, policy for inner city regeneration underwent a transformation from a reliance on central and local government activity and the use of public funds, to a much heavier dependence on private sector activities and private investment. This new strategy was based on a conviction on the part of government that the engine of enterprise could achieve in the inner cities what local government had so signally failed to do. It consisted of using public resources as incentives to attract commerce, business and industry back to designated sectors in or near to inner...

The aim of this collection is to restore to circulation a number of key texts from the debate about the future of welfare that took place in Britain between the Great Depression and the end of the period during which the Welfare State was established. The set is divided into four sections. The first covers the period during which the country felt the full impact of the world depression and a number of solutions were put forward to address the issues arising, in particular the consequences of mass unemployment. These cover a range of different approaches from orthodox Marxism and idiosyncratic...

Drawing material from a range of disciplines and with a geographical coverage across all the major developed countries, this book explores the ramifications of welfare and the state over the course of the 20th century.

Civil society as a concept is currently much discussed in the political arena and now frequently referred to in academic texts. But what does it mean in practice and how does it relate to more familiar ideas like voluntary action? This new book by a leading commentator explores the connections between the two and provides a wide range of examples of situations in which civil society has provided an arena for voluntary association and action which has had a real impact on events at local, national and, latterly, the global level.

The relationship between the state and the voluntary sector has changed significantly since 1948 when Beveridge's major report, Voluntary Action, was first published. Sixty years later, a group of historians analyse and reassess the impact of Beveridge's ideas about voluntary action for social advance in this timely volume. Using examples from the UK, Australasia and Canada, this book clearly articulates the importance and significance of Beveridge's ideas on voluntary action within an international context.With the emphasis of governments on the importance of the voluntary or 'third sector'...