Bringing Consumers into Performance Measurement: concepts, consequences and constraints

As the practice of formal measurement of the performance of public services spreads attempts are beginning to be made to combine this measurement with the even more recent fashion for a ‘consumer approach’. This paper argues that there are a range of sometimes incompatible ideas at play behind the popular label of ‘consumerism’. The consequences of combining performance measurement with a consumer approach will depend very much on which concept of the consumer is being invoked. In conclusion it is pointed out that, while current conceptions of the public service consumer are often stultifyingly apolitical and narrow, the bolder versions of consumerism also face apparently considerable but largely unexplored constraints.