Premium
New Labour's modernization in the public sector: a neo‐Durkheimian approach and the case of mental health services
Author(s) -
Perri,
Peck Edward
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.0033-3298.2004.00384.x
Subject(s) - modernization theory , mainstream , scope (computer science) , sociology , mental health , style (visual arts) , public sector , positive economics , economics , political science , economic growth , economy , law , psychology , programming language , archaeology , computer science , psychotherapist , history
Five accounts of New Labour's style of public management reform can be identified in the recent academic literature. Although each has merits, none is wholly convincing. After a discussion of their scope and limits, this article offers a distinctive account, grounded in wider social theory, which also synthesizes the most valuable elements in the five mainstream accounts. The article then uses the case of New Labour's reforms of the mental health system to support this account, showing how it exemplifies each of the 15 major strands of reform activity that have together been the hallmark of what in practice New Labour has meant by ‘modernization’. This provides the basis for a critique of the limits and dangers of the New Labour style.