The problems which the managerial state is intended to resolve derive from contradictions and conflicts in the political, economic and social realms. But what we have seen is the managerialisation of these contradictions; they are redefined as “problems to be managed”. Terms such as “efficiency” and “effectiveness”, “performance” and “quality” depoliticise a series of social issues (Whose efficiency? Effectiveness for whom?) and thus displace real political and policy choices into a series of managerial imperatives. (Clarke, 1998, p. 179)