THE TREASURY AS THE CENTRAL DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT, 1919–1939

Sir Warren Fisher, Permanent Secretary of the Treasury from 1919 to 1939, tried to make the Treasury a 'general staff', for all of Whitehall. He was official head of the civil service, and his Department co-ordinated policy by persuading ministers to decide priorities within a balanced budget. Treasury advice on what policy should be was influential, partly because of the absence of a fully developed Cabinet Office or Prime Minister's Office. Treasury control of expenditure was also necessary to ensure that spending departments conformed to Cabinet decisions on priorities. The Treasury exercised a powerful influence, however, only so long as the Cabinet accepted the financial orthodoxy of balanced budgets.     

REFLECTIONS ON THE TRUE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SCOTT REPORT FOR GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY

The immediate impact of the Scott report was slight because it had no conclusion and led to no ministerial or other resignations. Reasons for this inconclusiveness were examined, including conventions of the judicial process, the difficulty Scott had in defining the offences he was examining, the slipperiness of those offences as constitutional conventions and Scott's lack of grasp of administrative processes.
Yet his report is a mine of information on problems of accountability in the area of government defence sales. It was atypical in that three departments pursuing four policies between them and with another department as policeman had a locus in the process. Given the nearly 100,000 licences being processed at one time, it was a large, complex and fragmented administrative activity which might easily have resulted in more mishaps than it did.
Despite its special features the author argues that it does provide evidence of six areas of difficulty in government accountability which are also of (growing) relevance outside the area Scott surveyed: how one finds who is responsible for policy and policy change; how accountability is secured where confidentiality is justified for national security or other reasons; how one gets operational accountability for executive operations within departments; the accountability of junior to departmental ministers; of junior to more senior civil servants; and of civil servants to ministers.     

BRITAIN'S ADMINISTRATIVE ELITE: PERMANENT SECRETARIES 1900–1986

This article is based upon analysis of biographical data of those men and women who reached the rank of Permanent Secretary in the career civil service between 1900 and 1986. Among other matters, the article gives details of the schools and universities attended by Permanent Secretaries, their age on, and mode of, entry to the civil service, and their career pattern within that service, including the number of departments served in, the age of appointment to the rank of Permanent Secretary, and the length of tenure in that role. The evidence shows that for the present cadre of Permanent Secretaries the route to the top has been characterized by inter-departmental mobility, private office service, and experience in the key central departments of the Treasury and the Cabinet Office.     

PUBLIC LAW

Traditionally, both the academic study and the practice of UK public administration have drawn very little inspiration from the discipline of public law. In contrast to most other European countries, in which public services are subject to extensive administrative-legal codes, and in which administrative disputes fall under the jurisdiction of separate and specialized administrative courts, UK administrative law remains – recent reforms notwithstanding – significantly undeveloped. There is a marked contrast also with the United States, where the founding scholars of the discipline of public administration saw it as being firmly rooted in public law. There is no codified British constitution and no counterpart of the US Supreme Court; and there is no British counterpart of the US Administrative Procedure Act 1946. However, there are three factors which underline the urgent need in the UK for greater collaboration and convergence between the disciplines of public law and public administration: first, the accumulation in recent years of a substantial body of research-based, academic literature on public law, which provides important insights into the changing landscape of UK public administration; secondly, the continuing development of machinery for the redress of citizens’grievances against the state – in particular, the substantial growth of judicial review proceedings and the development of ombudsman systems; thirdly, the continuing transformation of the agenda of UK law and politics by developments in the European Union.     

WORKING IN WHITEHALL: CHANGES IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 1952–1982

There have been significant changes in public administration over the past thirty years, both internal to Whitehall and in its relationship to the outside world. The author offers a personal assessment based on his working experience. By taking a series of 'landmark reports published over that period he charts the extent to which they influenced, or reflected, changes in the character and style of public administration and in the general climate of public opinion within which the civil service works. He concludes that Whitehall today is better equipped than it used to be in its range of professional expertise and management techniques, but that it also faces a more sceptical and demanding audience. The next ten years may see the development of a style of public administration in which the traditional administrative skills are merged with the newer managerial concern for efficiency and effectiveness. But greater competence also requires improvements in the ways in which policy is formulated and its effects evaluated.     

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM – GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE

Failure to understand the political nature of administrative reform and to develop a political strategy to overcome resistance lies behind the failure of many reform attempts. The prerequisites of reform include political will, time, resources, an ongoing institution promoting change, and a strategy which concentrates on the implementation stage when resistance is strongest. Such a strategy must use the principal levers of change, including legislation, which directly affect administrative behaviour. In Australia in the 1970s administrative reform proceeded only slowly with the exception of changes in some States and the introduction of a new body of Federal administrative law. A better reform strategy in the past two years has resulted in extensive legislative change at the Federal level including greater ministerial control over certain senior appointments, open public competition for the top one per cent of civil service jobs, affirmative action and industrial democracy. There has thus been a further shift towards a unique Australian model of public administration.     

The process of professionalization and the rebuilding of administrative ethics in post-MAO China

The process of professionalization for Chinese administration is in essence one that is shifting from the Party's cadres to the civil servants of the state, from a revolutionary clique with a special mission to a professional administrative group serving the general interest of the society. As a revolutionary clique existing under the Party's leadership for a long time, it was characterized by “traditional features,” such as not being open to all citizens, politics overwhelming administration, management based on personal style rather than professional norms, etc. These features, to a large degree, produced a corresponding administrative attitude, ethics and behavior, which include a sense of “paternal official,” self-discipline, adoring personalized authority. They in turn support the traditional system with both positive and negative consequences.

The economic reform provided the impetus for changing the traditional system, and new framework with a strange civil service emerged, with such professional characteristics as opening jobs up to the whole society, respect for law and regulation, management and promotion based on merit, etc. However, the negative side of the economic reform has hindered the further development of professionalization. In particular, corruption and negligence of administrative ethics have undermined the new system. Further professionalization needs a spirit provided by rebuilding public administration: changing ideology and attitude, innovating institutions, and reforming the culture.     

BUREAUCRACY TRIUMPHANT OR DENIED? THE EXPANSION OF THE BRITISH CIVIL SERVICE, 1919–1939

The power of central government in Britain increased significantly in the inter-war period, but did Britain become bureaucratic? This article examines the expansion of the civil service as a whole through a detailed case study of one particular department (the Ministry of Labour) in the light of traditional critiques of bureaucracy. It concludes that previous over-concentration on the role of the Treasury has distorted analysis. The inter-war civil service became bureaucratic in terms not of rationality, inefficiency or power but only of size and increasing complexity. In this it reflected a general trend in British society, which also affected industry and the trade union movement.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THATCHER GOVERNMENT'S 'GRAND STRATEGY' FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE: A PUBLIC POLICY PERSPECTIVE

Since the Thatcher Government came to office, the policies which it has pursued towards the civil service have been characterized by its determination to emphasize political control over the work of government departments and to'de-privilege' the civil service. The paper traces and evaluates the development of the Conservative Government's'grand strategy' for the civil service which was eventually given the form of the financial management initiative in 1982, an attempt to universalize MINIS and institutionalize Raynerism. Among other things, this policy study considers the cuts in civil service numbers and the changes in its hierarchy, the dismantling of the Priestley pay system, the civil service strike of 1981, and the disbanding of the Civil Service Department, involving as it did the dismissal of the Head of the Home Civil Service.     

More Than 'Counting Manhole Covers': The Evolution Of The British Tradition Of Public Administration

This article is a revised version of an inaugural lecture, delivered at the University of Leeds on 30 April 1998. The focus of the lecture and, thus, of this article is concerned with administrative history and the civil service. The first part of the article is about the pioneers of the academic study of public administration, and the subject's relationship with political philosophy. The second part examines the role of the Webbs and the British approach to public administration. The third part evaluates the contribution of the academics of the 'Golden Age' of public administration. The fourth part deals with changing perceptions of public administration, with a particular emphasis on developments in the civil service; it is deliberately self-referential. The final part briefly considers the future of the academic study of public administration, concluding that it has one.     

DEVELOPING AND UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL CHANGE IN HM CUSTOMS AND EXCISE: THERE IS MORE TO DANCING THAN KNOWING THE NEXT STEPS

Increasingly, what was formerly known as public administration is turning itself into management, while management itself is fast becoming synonymous with the management of change. These two directions meet in government calls to change the culture of the civil service, and are to be found most clearly in the Financial Management Initiative (1982), and its successor, the Next Steps (1988). While each stresses a different aspect, the core policy idea which runs through them is one of improving performance by delegating power and responsibility down the hierarchy closer to the point of delivery. In this way the bureaucratic giants which comprise the various central government departments are transformed into more adroit organizations, to the extent that it becomes appropriate to talk of giants learning to dance (Kanter 1989). This article, through a discussion of 'experiments in change' conducted in one of the largest central government giants, HM Customs and Excise, argues that teaching giants to learn to dance is easier said than done. The main focus of the article is on what giants may need to learn in order that they can become more attuned to change and it concludes with the proposition that change in central government cannot be understood or be properly managed without an appreciation of the changing context of change itself.     

JUDICIAL REVIEW AND THE 'CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT'

Administrative law is traditionally said to be concerned with the 'control of government', and judicial review of administrative action is said to be the primary mechanism of 'control'. It is argued that judicial review fails in any significant sense to control central government. Explanations for this include the ability of the executive, acting through the legislature it controls, to reverse or nullify judicial decisions: the characteristics of the civil service which, in the absence of any significant legal training as a condition of employment, tend not to be aware of the significance of administrative law principles; and the imprecision of those principles, which make them inadequate as a guide to determine administrative processes. If administrative lawyers do in fact seek to establish control over central government, some at least of those problems must be faced, perhaps by the creation of a body of principles of administration.     

COMPETING TRADITIONS OF GOVERNANCE AND DILEMMAS OF ADMINISTRATIVE ACCOUNTABILITY: THE CASE OF DENMARK

This article offers a study of the changing role of the state in Denmark under the condition of the overall transformation from government to governance with particular emphasis on the corresponding transition from process accountability to performance accountability. It is argued that although new modes of governance have been introduced, and new interpretations of accountability have been proliferated, neither conventional modes of governance nor older interpretations of accountability disappear. Thus, what we see is a co-existence of competing traditions of governance and different and sometimes contradictory interpretations of administrative accountability, which create potential dilemmas and contradictions for the individual civil servant. Employing an interpretative approach to governance and public administration, the article analyses the constitution of competing traditions of governance and interpretations of accountability, and the way in which these competing traditions and interpretations lead to accountability dilemmas for the individual civil servant.     

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE NETHERLANDS: EXPANSION,DIVERSIFICATION AND CONSOLIDATION

The rise of Dutch administrative sciences is related to the post‐war expansion of the country’s welfare state. The growing welfare state needed scientific support for policy‐making and planning. Legal expertise alone was no longer sufficient. After the initial separation from administrative law, the post‐war policy and administrative sciences in The Netherlands were strongly oriented towards our American ‘big brother’. Since the 1980s, a growing self‐identity and self‐confidence has developed. The period from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s witnessed a steady expansion and diversification of Dutch PA sciences. The subject is now taught at 11 of the 13 Dutch universities. The enormous growth of the early 1990s is over, and student numbers have now stabilized – and at a substantial level, thus consolidating the position of PA departments in most universities. From the mid 1990s onwards Dutch administrative sciences have gone through a process of internationalization. Dutch PA sciences have as a result acquired a status of recognized quality in the international scientific community.     

THE IRREPRESSIBLE ROD RHODES: CONTESTING TRADITIONS AND BLURRING GENRES

Rod Rhodes spent 25 years as the Editor of Public Administration before he retired from that role at the end of 2010. These essays in his honour are intended to celebrate the achievement of those 25 years and reflect on his contribution to the worlds of public administration and political science. Rod has now consolidated the standing of the journal as one of the most significant locations for work on public administration. At the same time, over his career, he has prodded and probed, challenged and innovated, in a wide range of areas. The essays in this special edition have been designed around his intellectual interests over the 40 years of his career, from local government, and networks, to ethnography and narratives. Each author was asked, as appropriate, to identify Rhodes' impact and to assess the present state of the literature. Three articles consider the state of the discipline in the UK, the USA and in the world of comparative politics. Rod is then given the opportunity to reflect on his career and where his interests might lead. As ever he wants the last word! This introduction provides the context for his career and charts in broad terms his intellectual trajectory and contribution.     

Cultural Aspects Of Europeanization: The Case Of The Scottish Office

This article takes an in-depth look at the cultural implications of membership of the European Union (EU) for a UK government department. As part of a broader examination of how Europeanization, in its various forms, has affected a range of Whitehall departments, Bulmer and Burch (1998) concluded that the cultural element of change in the UK has been limited in the sense that existing administrative traditions within government departments have not undergone any radical reorientation. The purpose here is to test the validity of these conclusions and in more general terms afford detailed consideration to an area of Europeanization which has tended to be neglected in the academic discourse. This is achieved by way of employing interview and documentary-based source material relating to the area of cultural change as it affected a particular UK department, the Scottish Office. In the event, the piece concludes that the detail of the Scottish Office case can be used to confirm Bulmer and Burch's general observation that cultural Europeanization has not manifested itself to any great extent within UK government departments in the sense that it has entailed wide-reaching changes to administrative approaches and working practices. More generally, the empirical basis of the analysis provides fresh insights into how specific matters, such as training and secondments, have impacted upon the work of civil servants in the UK.     

THE COMPUTERIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY: THE WAY FORWARD OR A STEP BACKWARDS?

The Department of Social Security is one of the largest government departments, consuming 30 percent of public spending and employing around 10 per cent of central government StJ. Before 1980 there were no computers in its local administrative centres. The Operational Strategy was a plan to change this, involving the construction of largescale computer systems and the installation of 40,000 terminals in 1,000 local offices and unemployment offices. It is the largest programme of computerization ever undertaken in Europe. Full national coverage is expected in 1991. But the project has been plagued with problems: costs have soared from £700m. to £2, CCXh-n. and rising, planned savings have fallen, expected benefits seem unlikely to be achieved and implementation errors have caught the public eye. What caused these problems and are they as serious as reports in the press might lead the public to believe? Computerization has the potential to make possible many far reaching changes to administrative functions and working practices. It is important to study the decisional implications of these changes before the computers themselves become embedded in the structure of the organization.     

TASK COMPLEXITY,ORGANIZATION SIZE,AND ADMINISTRATIVE INTENSITY: THE CASE OF UK UNIVERSITIES

The task complexity and size of public service organizations are arguably key determinants of the proportion of resources devoted to administration. Moreover, the combined effect of these two variables is also likely to have important implications for the scale of the administrative function. To explore the separate and combined effects of task complexity and size on administrative intensity in public service organizations, we examine the determinants of the relative proportion of resources allocated to central administration rather than academic departments in UK universities between 2003 and 2008. The results suggest that there is a non‐linear U‐shaped impact of both task complexity and size on administrative intensity, and that in combination these characteristics lead to a bigger central administrative component in universities. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION: ONE MORE TIME IN THE FRYING PAN

As an academic discipline, public administration has reached yet another fork in its evolutionary road. Earlier milestones have posed choices during the discipline's unfolding. In this century emphases have shifted in turn from civil service reform to scientific management, then to human relations and decision making. As the century closes, the discipline acknowledges some intellectual debt to each of these foci. The traditional debate about what kinds of ties suffuse policy/politics and administration now reflects a new uncertainty—the meaning of administration itself. Is there anything analogous among the public, private, and not-for-profit contexts in which administration transpires? Are there substantive or procedural considerations within these various contexts of policy making that influence, and in turn are influenced by, administrative participation in the policy process? If so, what is the nature of such influence, and what are its consequences?     

UNDERSTANDING THE MIXTURE OF GOVERNANCE MODES IN KOREAN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Governance research in Korea has been limited to literature reviews or case studies, and little quantitative analysis has been performed to examine varying patterns of governance mixture and their underlying variation. This article provides an important addition to governance research by mapping the terrain of governance mixture using quantitative data. The data were drawn from 96 departments in eight comparable district governments in Seoul, Korea. The results showed: first, all three governance modes – hierarchy, market, and network – existed in a combined form across all 96 departments; second, although all three governance modes were present, hierarchy remained the dominant governance mode across all 96 departments; and finally, the three governance modes were situationally mixed contingent upon the distinct departmental tasks. The implications of these findings are discussed.