This book provides a set of ideas which aim to contribute to the creation of democratic public services that value service users and public service professionals so that they support and complement each and are not set against each other. It will aim to challenge the concept of provider capture, principal agent theory and other concepts used to justify public sector reforms by exploring the use of democratic approaches to public service delivery. Public services are delivered to citizens and are funded by public expenditure through taxation. They are an essential part of democracy but the degree to which democratic processes shape the delivery of public services is often limited, made more so by outsourcing and privatisation.

Public services need to be democratised in the light of changes taking place in the way in which public services are delivered, for example, increased personalisation. We need to find ways of defining the type of public services needed in future. Whereas the current emphasis in public sector reform is on how to involve service users as co-producers of services, this book focuses on the public sector professionals who deliver public services and explores how public service professionalism within public services could operate in a more democratic way. The answers may vary according to the type of public service, but there are some basic questions which all public service professionals would benefit from trying to answer.

Types of democracy

Erik Olin Wright (2010) in Envisioning Utopias sets out how democracy or ‘rule by the people’ is put into practice through three systems of democracy. As a way of exploring what a democratic professionalism might look like an outline of different forms of democracy will provide a clearer understanding of some of the processes which underpin democratic practice. Some of the forms of democracy can be defined in terms of organisational systems, structures and arrangements, whereas other forms are more normative and aspirational.