The Consulting Trap: How Professional Service Firms Hook Governments and Undermine Democracy

The Consulting Trap does a deep dive into how governments have become hooked on private consultancy firms with dire consequences for democratic decision-making, public accountability and accessible public services. Hurl and Werner contend that firms like McKinsey, Accenture, KPMG and Deloitte increasingly take responsibility for core public services, trapping governments in cycles of dependency. Through orchestrating tax avoidance for the wealthy while engineering austerity for the rest, these firms have created the foundations for the deepening privatization of the public services, further entrenching their power.

Drawing on case studies from Canada and around the world, Hurl and Werner investigate how big consultancies leverage social networks, institutionalize relationships, mine and commodify data, and establish policy pipelines that facilitate the quick diffusion of ideas across jurisdictions. Drawing from real world examples, The Consulting Trap offers strategies for how these powerful firms can be resisted using people’s audits, public consultations, access to information requests, and social network analyses.

Chris Hurl is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University. His research explores the influence of the private sector in public policymaking and service delivery. He is the co-editor of Corporatizing Canada: Making Business Out of Public Service and Professional Service Firms and Politics in a Global Era. His research has appeared in Environment and Planning, Studies in Political Economy, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Labour/Le Travail and the Journal of Canadian Studies.

Leah B. Werner is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University. She has done research on the role of professional service firms in financializing public infrastructure as well as on basic income, activism and work in Canada. She has written about basic income and on the influence of private consulting firms in public policymaking during the Covid-19 pandemic.