In order to determine whether consumerism and consumer choice are relevant to the problem of improving public services, consumerism and consumer choice need to be evaluated individually. Thus both these two concepts will be analysed in greater detail in the following paragraphs, thus allowing for a conclusion to be drawn as to whether they do improve public services or in fact hinder the public service.
According to Potter, ?Consumerism attempts to redress the imbalance of power that exists between those who produce goods and services, and those for whom they are provided.' (Potter, Public Administration, pg149). Thus it is argued that currently in the public service sector the imbalance in power, often results in those producing and providing the services having more power than those who use and need them. Therefore the concept of consumerism was established in order to combat the imbalance of power. As consumerism is based on redressing the imbalance of power, five key factors were produced in order to help with the redress of power, these five points being, access, choice, information, redress and representation. All these five points will be analysed in greater detail, in order to understand how the concept of consumerism impacts on the public service sector.
Due to the nature of certain public services, deciding who shall have access to each service can not be placed in the hands of the consumer and therefore should be seen as a political responsibility. Thus this needs to be managed effectively as to ensure only those that need the services have access to them. Potter also argues that ?those who pay for public services and those who benefit from them are not necessarily the same people; the cardinal consumer principle of access cannot be translate ...