<p>Includes bibliographical references and index.</p>

Introduction: retrieving the big society -- The big society in question -- Red or orange: the big society in the new conservatism -- Cameron, culture and the creative class: the big society and the post-bureaucratic age -- Big societies, little platoons and the problems with pluralism -- Servile state or discredited state: some historical antecedents of current big society debates -- Tocqueville and the big society -- The big society and conservative politics: back to the future or forward to the past? -- Freedom, free institutions and the big society -- From Burke to Burkha: conservatism, multiculturalism and the big society -- The big society: post-bureaucratic social policy in the twenty-first century? -- Free schools: big society or small interests? -- The big society and the mutualisation of public services -- Beginning the big society in the early years.