This essay argues that we need to radically reconfigure the state so that it is better able to tackle the more complex challenges we face, meet the expectations of the modern public and generate more meaningful forms of equality between citizens. I make a case for change on three grounds. First, traditional bureaucratic and market-based tools for organising public services are failing to tackle a growing range of complex social problems. Second, there is growing evidence that public services are not providing citizens with the kind of support and experience they want. Third, efforts to achieve greater social equality have been pursued in an excessively transactional and bureaucratic fashion, neglecting the importance of fostering more direct relationships of solidarity between citizens and the need to promote autonomous lives, less dependent on the decisions of the bureaucratic state. I conclude by calling for a shift away from the technocratic 'delivery state' and towards a more 'relational state' that devolves power, connects services and deepens relationships.
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