eBook

The other invisible hand

Le Grand, Julian

2008,2007,2009

Overview

How can we ensure high-quality public services such as health care and education? Governments spend huge amounts of public money on public services such as health, education, and social care, and yet the services that are actually delivered are often low quality, inefficiently run, unresponsive to their users, and inequitable in their distribution. In this book, Julian Le Grand argues that the best solution is to offer choice to users and to encourage competition among providers. Le Grand has just completed a period as policy advisor working within the British government at the highest levels, and from this he has gained evidence to support his earlier theoretical work and has experienced the political reality of putting public policy theory into practice. He examines four ways of delivering public services: trust; targets and performance management; \"voice\"; and choice and competition. He argues that, although all of these have their merits, in most situations policies that rely on extending choice and competition among providers have the most potential for delivering high-quality, efficient, responsive, and equitable services. But it is important that the relevant policies be appropriately designed, and this book provides a detailed discussion of the principal features that these policies should have in the context of health care and education. It concludes with a discussion of the politics of choice.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press,Princeton Univ. Press
• Subject: Accountability / Administration / Adviser / Attendance / Behalf / Bildungsfinanzierung / Budget / Centre-left politics / Competition / Consideration / Consumer choice / Consumers' preferences / Criticism / Dienstleistungsqualität / Direct Payments / Disadvantage / Economics / Economist / Education / Elective surgery / Employment / Externality / Finance / Funding / Großbritannien / Health care / Health economics / Health facility / Health insurance / Health professional / Health services administration / History & Theory / Hostility / Human services / Income / Independent school / Institution / Invisible hand / ITIL / Malaise / Medicaid / Medical care / Medizinische Versorgung / Middle class / Municipal services / NHS trust / Nonprofit organization / Numeracy / Nursing home care / Of Education / Payment / Performance management / Physician / POLITICAL SCIENCE / POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory / POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / General / Politician / Poverty / Primary school / Prime Minister's Strategy Unit / Private school / Private sector / Privatisierung / Privatization / Profession / Provision (contracting) / Public administration / Public Policy / Public sector / Purchasing power / Quasi-market / Regime / Requirement / Responsiveness / School choice / School management and organization / Schulwesen / Secondary school / Service provider / Social class / Social democracy / Social insurance / Social justice / Social services / Staatliche Dienstleistung / State school / Tariff / Tax / Teacher / The Paradox of Choice / Trade-off / United Kingdom / Utilization / Vertrauen / Voucher / Wahlverhalten / Wettbewerb / Öffentliche Dienstleistung / Öffentliche Sozialausgaben / Öffentlicher Dienst
• ISBN: 9780691129365, 0691129363, 9781400828005, 1400828007