THE ENABLING STATE - THE ROLE OF MARKETS AND CONTRACTS

Contracts have been a key element in the recent reform of British publ ic services. Their introduction has formed part of a broader process o f change in which the market structures and values have featured promi nently. In practice, contracts have both brought benefits and presente d problems. More particularly, greater organizational formality has ra ised some important issues - the role of trust and the form and practi ce of accountability prominent among them. Evidence from a recent ESRC -supported study shows that some services (the simpler ones) have gene rally gained from the reforms; but the evidence for more complex ones is equivocal at best.