"This book analyzes the increasing use made by contemporary British governments of "contracts" to regulate a wide range of economic and social relationships. The "new public contracting" is the term given this distinctive mode of governance. Examples include the regulation of relationships between government departments through Public Service Agreements and Framework Documents, the restructuring of key public service sectors such as health, social care, and education through contracts in competitive quasi-markets, and the regulation of relationships between individual citizens and the state through Youth Offender Contracts, Parenting Contracts, and Jobseekers Agreements. The book provides a critical analysis of such contractual arrangements and evaluates their potential both to benefit the parties and to achieve the Government's regulatory objectives."

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