indicators to bring about rapid changes. Moreover, this was one of the characteristics of New Labour management: radical reforms were conducted through a proliferation of indicators and a rapid redefinition of targets and programmes. In their eyes, the social world was malleable, reactive and dynamic. Under pressure, it reacts forthwith to commands for mobilization from the masters of the moment. One cannot but be surprised by the extraordinary ambition of piloting society through such indicators and the discrepancy as regards service provision to the population. Thus, as early as 1998 the government announced the creation of 300 performance objectives for all departments. Each of them might make for newspaper headlines! These objectives were bound up with the resources allocated by the Treasury; each of its objectives was then divided up into dozens or hundreds of specific indicators by area. In view of the importance of the rhetoric of modernization, New Labour made it a point of pride to mobilize every ‘modern’ technique, not just the latest managerial fashions but also the systematic production of aggregate indictors thanks to increasingly sophisticated new technologies. They promoted the development of e government with enthusiasm. Following the example of the managerial software used in large firms to know the activity of different units in real time, they generalized the activity of reporting from agency or unit heads to the lowest level.