The Citizen's Charter

Even though the Citizen's Charter was much mocked at its inception, its basic principle has been copied in a number of other democratic countries. These reforms, sometimes rather superficially attributed to "Thatcherism" were in fact widely adopted, even in countries ruled by governments of the Left "France, for example, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden. .
             The Citizen's Charter has, moreover, had an impact upon statutory agencies and other public bodies which exist independently of the Next Steps regime. The charter has provided part of the stimulus for legislation which was designed to measure standards of performance of bodies such as utilities and local government. The 1991 Citizen's Charter launched a ten year programme to raise the standards of public services. Initially the emphasis was on efficiency and economy in public service reform. However, the government's attention has increasingly turned to the effectiveness of the civil service. In launching the charter the Prime Minister stated that: "For each public service we will select the most effective means of delivering the best. For each service the techniques will be different. But the Citizen's Charter will have one common aim - achieving the highest possible standards of performance for those who rely on public services in this country."" However, there were some formidable obstacles to turning John Major's ideas into reality. The Citizen's Charter tends to define the citizen as a customer of services, ignoring other aspects of citizenship. The supposition that public sector management can be approached in the same way as private sector management ignores real differences between the two, and one of the most fundamental difference lies in the customer/citizen concept. .
             The Citizen's Charter was much derided for its individualist and market values.
             and its impoverished conception of citizenship. Five years on, Deakin's more measured view that the Charter addresses real issues' and that, taking out the ideology, there is a residue left of potentially important, activity which .