Thus, the link between different actors and levels
is a series of abstract, formal rights and entitlements or monetised, market
relations (or again both at once). As such, welfare beneficiaries are reduced
to merely passive recipients of a ‘one-size-fits-all’, top-down service. State
paternalism and private contract delivery cost more to deliver less, and they
lock people either into demoralising dependency on the central state or
financially unaffordable dependency on outsourced, private contractors.