Locked In and Silent? The Effectiveness of 'Voice' in Public Services Reform

In recent years the United Kingdom government has increasingly adopted quasi-market arrangements (‘exit’) as a means of ensuring that public services in England meet the needs and wishes of users. However, the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales have been inclined to rely more on ‘voice’ to ascertain public demands. In so doing they have argued that the exercise of ‘exit’ is subject to socio-economic biases, with the result that the information about user preferences conveyed by the market is likely to be unrepresentative. This paper examines whether ‘voice’ is vulnerable to the same criticisms. Using survey data collected in the UK in 2007, two questions are addressed. First, does willingness to express ‘voice’ vary across different segments of the population in a similar manner to other forms of political participation? Second, are the preferences expressed by those who participate in any consultation exercise likely to be unrepresentative? The evidence suggests that willingness to be involved in ‘voice’ does indeed vary across the population in much the same way as willingness to be involved in other forms of political participation. Nevertheless, the policy preferences and evaluations of those who are likely to express their views are not unrepresentative of the views of the wider population, and thus ‘voice’ may provide an effective means of acquiring the preferences of service users