Towards Welfare Pluralism: Public Services in a Time of Change

An assessment of the British government's Thatcher and Majors administrations, demonstrating how radical conservatism shaped policy after 1987 in the four reform areas of education, housing, "competitive tendering," and social services. Rao (social policy and politics, Goldsmiths' College) argues that although service delivery was impaired by reform changes, the emerging "welfare pluralism," marked by competition and consumer empowerment, signifies a triumph in new public management. Distributed by Ashgate. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.