The New Contractualism, the Privatization of the Welfare State, and the Barriers to Open Source Planning

Bibliographic Data

ID19382995
AuthorsMike Raco (0000-0003-0371-532X, Moscow State University of Technologies and Management named after K.G. Razumovskiy, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume28
Issue1
Pages45-64
Publication date2013-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePlanning Practice and Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-7459 • E-ISSN: 1360-0583
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02697459.2012.694306
OpenAlexW2084120447
LanguageEN
Citations received34
References cited22

This paper argues that the UK government's Open Source Planning reforms are founded on a caricatured vision of state–society relationships. Simple binaries are deployed that present political power as a zero-sum game with ‘communities’ on the one side and state ‘bureaucracies’ on the other. There has been little recognition of the complex public–private sector entanglements left by the previous Labour government and the power of the ‘new contractualism’ in shaping the provision and ownership of welfare services and assets. The paper assesses the legacies of privatization under Labour and the structural limits that contracts and private financing now put on the governance and management of the welfare state and the planning system. It contends that the principle sources of state power and accountability that underpinned the post-war settlement are being eroded. Paradoxically, this will not devolve power to local communities and citizens but create new forms of distancing and disempowerment

Accountability · Bureaucracy · Clientelism · Contractualism · Corporate governance · Democracy · Economics · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Welfare state · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Public Administration · Urban Planning and Governance · Finance

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