This work provides an analysis of the creation of new state forms in the remaking of social welfare. The authors examine critically the political forces that enabled "more and better management" to be presented as a solution to the problems of the welfare state; analyze the micro-politics of change within public services; present an incisive and dynamic account of the restructuring of the British welfare state by drawing links between politics, policies and organizational power; address the tensions and contradiction in the managerial state; and trace the emergence of new dilemmas in the provision of public services. They show that these dilemmas are connected to the recurring problems of defining "the public" that receives these services. In particular, they question whether the reinvention of the public as either a nation or consumers or a nation of communities can effectively address the impications of social diversity.