This paper takes as its starting point the twin challenges to traditional patterns of state welfare that have emerged in recent years. At the practical level, it is increasingly difficult to reconcile demands for improved services with available resources and acceptable tax rates. At the theoretical level, a range of approaches loosely associated with the postmodern revolution in social thought suggest that bureaucratic state- regulated services are no longer appropriate to an increasingly diverse and fragmented society. In this context managerial changes that emphasise the role of the consumer and approaches to benefit administration that stress individual responsibility have emerged. The paper draws on Giddens' analysis of 'high modernity' to argue that such solutions may involve the extension rather than the fragmentation of central government power.
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