Abstract
The public sector was a major target for the Coalition, not only because it was a major recipient of government expenditure, and so a prime focus for cuts, but because both parties were committed to allowing other organisations to manage or deliver public services. David Cameron’s advocacy of the ‘Big Society’ envisaged charities, not-for-profit bodies, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs and voluntary organisations providing (to varying degrees) public services: a public service did not necessarily have to be provided solely by the public sector. This model was also supported by ‘Orange Book’ Liberals Democrats, who similarly wanted to reduce the size and scale of the state, and open-up the public sector to alternative or local providers. This would both save money and increase competition.
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Notes
- 1.
Heath Robinson was an early twentieth-century English cartoonist and illustrator famous for drawing deliberately absurd machines and other technical inventions, his work often intended to be satirical or mocking of the pomposity of those who over-complicated things with their grandiose designs.
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Dorey, P., Garnett, M. (2016). Public Sector Reform. In: The British Coalition Government, 2010-2015. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-02377-3_4
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