In his essay “The end of laissez-faire”, Keynes distinguished between the agenda and the non-agenda of government. Almost 80 years on, this book asks what Keynes’s distinction means today. Comprising a series of contributions by leading scholars and political commentators, it considers how the agenda and non-agenda of government have shifted and how they might shift further in the future.

The book starts by looking back at the expansion of the social democratic state in post-war Britain, and at the subsequent challenge to this from neo-liberal ideas and policies. In light of this history, the contributors then discuss new doctrines for managing the state, new conceptions of the state, and new ideas for organising the delivery of public services. They address current models such as the enabling state, as well as topical issues such as public private partnerships. All the contributors are impatient with outmoded ‘state versus market’ arguments, and strive to go beyond traditional thinking in order to rethink the contemporary role of the state.