Efficient at what?
Patrick Diamond writes eloquently about this in his new pamphlet on public service reform. Case studying the BBC, he accepts that markets can only go so far, and that they do create tensions with a more traditional set of public service values.
His argument is the tried and tested 'trade off' one - essentially that public value resides in resolving the tensions between efficiency and public service in a creative way. Fine, but can we really have our public service cake and eat it efficiently?
I wonder if the real problem isn't our temptation to see efficiency as an end in itself, rather than as a means to something more valuable. Rather than agonising about the efficiency/democracy dilemma, maybe we should be thinking about how to deliver democracy efficiently, and seeking a better understanding of how democracy can be efficient in itself.
If engaging people in collective problem solving is more expensive in the short run, then it also has the potential to allocate resources better, engage public energy and actually solve the problem in the long run.