The ecology of public services

The trouble with applying market mechanisms to public service organisations is not only that it can introduce competition where cooperation works better. The idea of ‘mechanism’ is more fundamentally flawed than the idea of the ‘market’ because public services are not machines. They are complex systems of relationships between living, breathing people. An ecological mindset might serve us better than an economic one in understanding how to improve them, argues Brendan Martin. (2004)