Choice and Voice – A Review

Abstract

‘Choice’ and ‘voice’ are two of the most significant means through which the public are able to participate in public services. Choice agendas position public service users as consumers, driving improvements by choosing good providers over bad, which then thrive through greater allocations of funds as money follows their selections (Le Grand, 2007). Choice-driven reforms tend to be about trying to make public services more locally responsive (Ferlie, Freeman, McDonnell, Petsoulas and Rundle-Smith, 2006). Voice-driven reforms, on the other hand, tend to position public service users as citizens, suggesting an emphasis on accountability mechanisms to drive service improvements through elections, with the possible removal of low regarded officials, or a greater involvement of local people in the running of services (Jenkins, 2006). Voice implies that citizens hold the right to participate in public services either through the political process, or through their direct involvement in the running or delivery of the services themselves. Of course, it is also possible to combine choice and voice mechanisms to try and achieve greater service responsiveness and accountability. In this review, choice reforms will be treated as those which are based upon consumer literature, and voice reforms those based upon attempting to achieve greater citizenship.Citizenship and consumption are two areas with significant literatures in their own right, but whereas the citizenship literature is widely cited in the social policy literature, the consumption literature appears rather more selectively. This review examines each area in turn in terms of its application to social policy, and then presents a synthesis of commonalties in the two literatures, which represent particularly promising avenues for exploring the relationship between public services and their users.

Parent Trigger Laws and the Promise of Parental Voice

“…In a consumer choice model the competition of the market is designed to weed out poor performing organizations. However, if individuals are not making exit decisions by weighing their options and choosing the one that best fits their self-interest, then the information provided to the school may not be enough to ensure improved quality (Greener, 2007). Second, exit may be selective on the "most influential members" (Hirschman, 1992, p. 89), reducing voice in the system.…”

“…The traditional school choice narrative identifies parents as consumers choosing between different products in a marketplace. In contrast, the shift to voice involves engaging with participants as citizens and recognizing that they have the right to participate in local decisions (Greener, 2007).…”

Accepting and Negotiating Service Users' Choices in Mental Health Transition Meetings

“…Do professionals take a paternalist orientation, or does choice making as a shared process include the possibility of democratic user involvement? This is a serious gap in the literature, since choices concerning individual services are inevitably accomplished locally in interactions between professionals and users within particular institutional contexts (Greener : 263; Greener and Mannion : 100).…”

Choice and Information in the Public Sector: A Higher Education Case Study

“…Helpful to the discussion of this article is the definition of Bradley et al (2004), that is the introduction of market mechanisms into the provision of publicly funded services rather than full privatisation. Policy on schools, to take one example, has been driven by the assumption that consumers (that is, parents) will reward the best providers by choosing them (Greener, 2008). The creation of league tables, together with a pupil based funding formula, was one of the essential elements of creating a quasi-market (Bradley et al, 2004).…”