THE NEXT STEPS AGENCIES, POLITICAL SALIENCE AND THE ARM'S-LENGTH PRINCIPLE: BARBARA CASTLE AT THE MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT 1965-68

The Next Steps agencies preserve a long tradition as the latest manifestation of the arm's-length principle of ministerial control. During the major part of this century, the now almost defunct public corporations offered one of the best examples of the arm's-length principle at work, and the recorded experiences of participants can provide valuable lessons for the Next Steps agencies. This article employs the diaries of Barbara Castle during her period as Transport Minister from 1965-68 in order to examine how she apportioned her time. From the evidence, a model is constructed which suggests that political salience is of greater importance than official structures in determining ministerial behaviour. Arising from the case study and the model, the final section of the article attempts to identify Next Steps agencies which have an inherently high potential for political salience, and concludes that, in this category, direct ministerial control would be preferable to the arm's-length principle.     

LOCAL ENTERPRISE BOARDS: THE SHORT HISTORY OF A RADICAL INITIATIVE

Local enterprise boards were first developed as radical initiatives For economic intervention in the early 1980s. Despite the closeness of their dates of birth, however, and the apparent similarity of the organizational forms (and titles) which they adopted, the differences between the boards were as significant as their shared features. The ambitions of each of the five first-wave boards were quite distinct. Some were more radical than others: some were concerned to challenge the market, whilst others were more concerned to work with it. But the experience of market-based intervention through the last decade as well as the legislative and financial constraints imposed by central government have encouraged a degree of convergence, particularly as grander ambitions have been modified. Partnership with the private sector (including the financial sector) became increasingly important for all of them, to the extent that legislation to restrict the operation of local authority based companies of this sort seems misplaced, at least if it is intended to undermine local socialism. The enterprise boards now seem to offer a better model for the involvement of business in regional and local government, than they do as trojan horses for the local authority left.     

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.     

TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF COLLABORATIVE PERFORMANCE: THE IMPORTANCE OF EFFICACY AND AGENCY

Much of what has been written about collaboration treats it instrumentally as a means–ends tool of improvement. However, despite considerable collaborative activity there is little evidence that clearly links collaboration to improvements in service‐user outcomes or reduced inequalities. In this article we draw on literature from critical public policy and governance studies to recast collaboration as an expression of cultural performance associated with a rather different set of values and measures. We argue that understanding collaboration in the round means that we need to pay attention to all dimensions of performance including cultural performance. We argue that this in turn helps to explain the persistent appeal of collaboration amongst policy makers and practitioners.     

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE BRITISH CENTRAL STATE, PART I: FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS

In the bureau-shaping model of bureaucracy rationally self-interested officials are primarily concerned to maximize their agencies' core budgets, equivalent to their running costs. They are much less interested in those parts of their overall budget which are allocated as transfer payments to the private sector or passed on to other public sector bodies. The varying importance of core budgets and other spending yields a typology of public sector organizations into delivery, transfer, contracts, regulatory and control agencies. In addition, the bureau-shaping model is developed in this article to provide an exhaustive classification of government agencies, and to refine the analysis of spending over and above core budgets.
The methodological issues involved in applying this typology empirically to the central state apparatus in Britain are explored. Previous attempts at 'bureaumetrics' have failed to mesh with 'ordinary knowledge' views of Whitehall. By contrast, the bureau-shaping model provides a framework which is theoretically sophisticated, easily operationalizable, and intuitively understandable. The scale of prospective hiving off from the UK civil service organization over the next decade indicates the value of adopting a framework which can respond methodologically to such changes, and offers a powerful theoretical account of their dynamic. Part II of the paper [next issue] presents the empirical data demonstrating that the bureau-shaping model is highly effective in systematizing and extending our knowledge of how Whitehall and its attached agencies are structured.     

PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY AND INEQUALITY IN HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE: AN EXAMINATION OF AMERICAN STATE HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS

This article examines the effect of the three publicness dimensions on inequality in health insurance coverage across 50 American state‐level health care systems. The analysis validates a Gini‐coefficient measure of Americans' unequal distribution of health insurance coverage across nine income groups and compares public ownership, financing, and control of health care systems across all 50 states from 2002 to 2010. There is a significant and negative relationship between public ownership and inequality in health insurance coverage, although the substantive impact of ownership is relatively small. Both public financing and control substantially reduce inequality in health insurance coverage across income groups. However, both of these must be present in order to be effective at reducing inequality. This article expands our understanding of the link between different institutional arrangements and inequality in health insurance coverage in hybrid health care systems.     

PRIVATE INITIATIVE AND COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY: A STRATEGY FOR THE BLACK COMMUNITY

In Britain black leaders are generally less well integrated into community agencies and local administration than their counterparts in the United States. This is partly explained by reference to the American 'arms length' approach to funding community development which, in contrast to the more centralized British approach, enables black leaders to work 'within the system' apparently without sacrificing too much of their political independence. In this context the paper views the activities and funding of the US community action and development agencies and British community relations councils.     

EUROPEANIZATION AND BUREAUCRATIC AUTONOMY IN THE NEW MEMBER STATES: A CASE STUDY OF THE AGRICULTURAL PAYING AGENCY IN SLOVAKIA

The paper explores the impact of Europeanization on bureaucratic autonomy in the new EU member states using as a case study the Agricultural Paying Agency in Slovakia. The paper shows that Europeanization had limited sustained impact on the personal autonomy of senior officials; however, it requires and sustains the personal autonomy of an extensive cadre of mid‐level and junior civil servants. At the same time, it necessitates and continues to sustain significant change in the way agricultural subsidies are distributed, with a high level of autonomy in implementation and a lower, but still significant, measure of autonomy in policy‐making. These conclusions can also generally be supported by evidence from Lithuania and Poland. In addition, the coercive elements of Europeanization interacted with the temporarily high bureaucratic autonomy in Slovakia to ‘open’ non‐coercive channels of Europeanization of agricultural subsidies and beyond.     

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE AND POLITICAL RATIONALITIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE IN THE NETHERLANDS

Multi‐level governance, network governance, and, more recently, experimentalist governance are important analytical frameworks through which to understand democratic governance in the EU. However, these analytical frameworks carry normative assumptions that build on functionalist roots and undervalue political dynamics. This can result in a lack of understanding of the challenges that democratic governance faces in practice. This article proposes the analysis of democratic governance from the perspective of multiple political rationalities to correct such assumptions. It analyses the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in the Netherlands as a paradigmatic case study by showing how governmental, instrumental, and deliberative rationalities are at work in each of the governance elements that it introduces. The article concludes by discussing the implications of a perspective of multiple political rationalities for the understanding and promotion of democratic governance in practice.     

THE SCUNTHORPE ENTERPRIZE ZONE: AN EXAMPLE OF MUDDLED INTERVENTIONISM

The article examines the case of the Scunthorpe Enterprize Zone (EZ) and the extent to which it is consistent with the Conservative Government's emphasis on the market mechanism. It also looks at the likely impact of this EZ on the local and sub-regional economy. The article concludes by observing that Scunthorpe District Council was quick to take advantage of its EZ status, which has already generated a significant number of jobs for the town, but at the possible cost of jobs in other parts of the sub region. Finally the Scunthorpe case would appear to support the view that the implementation of the policy has been in contradiction to the original objectives of central Government.     

BENCHMARKING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: A CRITICAL CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

How can we critically address benchmarking? By conceptualizing benchmarking as a normalizing governing technology, a space is cleared for analysing some of the power relations brought into play in benchmarking activities. As a device of power, benchmarking depends upon the production of normalizing knowledge and the freedom or self‐governing capacities of those who are benchmarked. The fruitfulness of this conception is illustrated through an example from the Danish hospital system.     

THE POLITICS OF DECLINE: AN INTERPRETATION OF BRITISH POLITICS FROM THE 1940s TO THE 1970s

THE POLITICS OF DECLINE: AN INTERPRETATION OF BRITISH POLITICS FROM THE 1940s TO THE 1970s
Geoffrey K. Fry
Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, 307 pp., £55 (hb) ISBN: 0333726227     

ENGLISH METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT SINCE ABOLITION: AN EVALUATION OF THE ABOLITION OF THE ENGLISH METROPOLITAN COUNTY COUNCILS

The Local Government Act 1985 abolished the Greater London Council (GLC) and the six English metropolitan county councils (MCCS); but it did not abolish the services for which they were responsible. It transferred them: some directly to the lower-tier borough or district councils, others to a variety of joint boards, joint committees, residuary bodies, and special purpose agencies. As a result, there are, in at least some of the former MCC areas, many services still operated wholly or partially on a county-wide basis. The first part of this article compares the contrasting approaches adopted in the six metropolitan areas to the retention or re-creation of county-wide services after abolition. The second part attempts to explain these contrasting approaches: why, for instance, significantly more county-wide institutional arrangements were voluntarily negotiated by the districts in West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester than by those in South Yorkshire and Merseyside.     

eHEALTH IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ACCEPTANCE OF GERMANY'S ELECTRONIC HEALTH CARD

Given the increasing importance of eHealth as an integral part of eGovernment, this contribution concentrates on the issue of acceptance regarding the introduction of the German electronic health card (eHC). A brief introduction highlights the relevance of the subject and the differing acceptance rates of patients and service providers, i.e. physicians. Based on both the technology acceptance model and the relevant literature, important factors influencing the attitude towards and the potential use of the eHC are conceptualized and integrated in a research model. The empirical examination was conducted throughout Germany through an online survey of physicians. Overall, 502 responses were collected and included in the analysis, which was carried out with structural equation modelling using EQS. The empirical results show that the relevant determinants of the acceptance of the eHC in Germany, such as efficiency and usability of the system and the cost–benefit ratio, were properly identified.     

DECENTRALIZING HEALTH SERVICES IN THE UK: A NEW CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Decentralization is a central plank of current government health policy. However, it is possible to discern both centralist and decentralist movements in the UK. This paper examines existing frameworks of decentralization in relation to identifying whether policy is decentralist or not and identifies a number of problems that limit their value. Key problems relate to the way decentralization is conceptualized and defined. Existing frameworks are also highly contextualized and are therefore of limited value when applied in different contexts. The paper then presents a new framework which, it is argued, provides a more useful way of examining centralization and decentralization by providing a way of categorizing policies and actions and avoids the problems of being contextually constrained. The paper ends with a discussion of how the framework can be applied in a health context and shows how this framework helps avoid the problems found in previous discussions of decentralization.