The Marketization of Public Services
Argues that the marketization of public services has fostered private, economic, individualistic conceptions of citizenship while undermining those that are public, social, & communitarian. A structural paradigm that defines the marketization of public services based on a triangular relationship between state, citizen, & intermediate public-service provider (IPSP) is used to explore the impact of the changed citizen/state relationship on citizenship. It is contended that the remodeled relationship has seriously decreased the citizen's voice in government by denying the directness of that voice & commercializing the subject matter of citizen-state discourse. Three key implications of the new marketized relationship are explored: (1) the consumerization of the citizen/IPSP relationship; (2) the marginalization of the state/citizen relationship; & (3) the economization of the IPSP/state relationship. It is argued that the construction of rationales & patterns of operations for these relationships represent the most critical way in which the marketization of public services has been transforming citizenship. Both negative & positive aspects of this transformation are discussed. 29 References. J. Lindroth