Anxiety of Influence

Chris Hurl, a sociologist at Concordia University, and Leah B. Werner, a doctoral candidate in his department, want to see big transnational professional service firms, known as TPSFs, pushed out of government. Their book, The Consulting Trap, is a “citizen’s guide”— verging on a manifesto — that encourages readers to challenge officials to stop hiring these companies. They argue that TPSFs undermine our democracy by setting out “to restructure the state in a manner that hooks governments, fostering growing reliance on their services.” Such firms hard-wire “a policy program built around neoliberal principles inside the state, effectively fostering the establishment of hybrid governance arrangements,” along with austerity and efficiency. TPSFs are “increasingly positioned at the core of public service delivery but with very little accountability or transparency.”

These are large claims. Certainly the huge size of TPSFs suggests they are formidable actors...