Funder: ESRC
Consumer choice – or exit – is currently a key element of public service reform, and the current policy discourse suggests that choice and voice will complement each other to create user-driven pressures for improvements in public service quality. This research scrutinises the accuracy of this discourse by going back to Hirschman’s thesis and investigating the conditions under which exit and voice are complementary and those under which they are not. The policy implications are then considered within the institutional framework of the English education system.
