ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the regulation of professions by innovative use of animal metaphors based on zoos, circuses and safari parks, viewed primarily through the lens of a neo-Weberian perspective. Both the conventional and professional zoo is subject to the pressures of managerialism and consumerism. The chapter presents case study that focuses on recent attempts by the Conservative, Labour and Coalition governments in England to reform the professional regulation of healthcare, in light of growing evidence of the frailties of the existing system of professional self-regulation, which threatened to prejudice the health of the wider public. It also provides case study of healthcare professions that highlights the different ways in which the Conservative and Labour governments up to 2010 sought to tighten control of professions for public benefit - ultimately strengthening the security of the individual enclosures in the circus so that the animals did not escape.
