Citizenship and markets in recent British education policy

British public policy has recently pioneered many initiatives in the introd uction of market principles to public services. However, within the welfare state arena these have usually had to compromise with existing concepts of citizenship, and sometimes also with community - which need to be distingu ished from both. The article considers some of the effects of this process within the specific field of education policy. It finds some negative conse quences, summarized under the headings of distortion, degradation and resid ualization, but also finds evidence of interesting and promising syntheses, as well as some new paradoxes.