Examining the micro-politics within public service, the authors draw links between politics, policies and organizational power to present an incisive and dynamic account of the restructuring of social welfare. Clarke and Newman expose the tensions and contradictions in the managerial state and trace the emergence of new dilemmas in the provision of public services. They show that these problems are connected to the recurring difficulties in defining `the public′ that receives these services. In particular they question whether the reinvention of the public as either a nation of consumers or a nation of communities can effectively address the implications of social diversity.

`The Managerial State can be situated as part of a critical literature on public sector managerialism to which it makes a valuable contribution...Clarke and Newman have produced a thoughtful and stimulating book. Their focus is on the British experience and this is unfashionable when this is a sine qua non to produce comparative work in social policy. However, they produce the robust justification of this approach; that as different countries have pursued different attempted solutions to economic recession and crisis and these in turn depend upon a specific combinations of national politics and circumstances then a national focus is fully justified. In the view of this reviewer such an emphasis on Britain serves to enhance rather than diminish the value of the book.′ Journal of Social Policy

`A significant contribution to the growing body of work which charts the impact of management theory on welfare organizations in the United Kingdom′ - International Social Work

Author/Editor Description: Janet Newman is Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham. She is co-author of ′The Managerial State′ (with J Clarke, SAGE 97), author of ′Shaping Organisational Cultures in Local Government′ (96), and co-editor of ′Gender, Culture and Organisational Change (with C Itzin, eds, 95).