ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the impact of managerialism on Social Services and its significance for the application of the street-level bureaucracy perspective will be considered, and the argument made that it is possible to distinguish two broad views of the impact of managerialism. The chapter argues that the street-level bureaucracy perspective can be criticised for not giving sufficient attention to the impact of professionalism on manager worker relations and on the practices of discretion within some street-level bureaucracies. From the domination perspective, managers now have power, and practitioners do not; managers are in control and can command and direct powerless practitioners, who are bound to comply because of their powerlessness. Paradoxically, in the light of Howe's critique, the domination perspective bears strong similarities to the way in which Lipsky characterises the nature and role of management in street-level bureaucracies.
