ABSTRACT
One essential way to promote greater citizen involvement as co-producers of social welfare services is to provide them with greater collective influence and bargaining power in the production process itself. Both exit and voice are related to the nature of goods and services. It is necessary to distinguish between durable and non-durable goods and also to differentiate between enduring and non-enduring services. Establishing formalized or institutionalized relations between consumers and producers of enduring social services can be preferable from a consumer perspective because it helps them to reduce the transaction costs of obtaining these services. Involving citizens as co-producers could result in a far-reaching form of consumer participation in the production of social services, one that goes beyond exit and voice, and facilitates active and creative consumer responses. Social enterprises and cooperatives can promote power sharing and a closer partnership between consumers and producers of social services.
