DECISION MAKING REVISITED

Decision Making is a case study of the decision to raise the Bank Rate by 2 per cent (to 7 per cent) on 19 September 1957. Following the decision there were rumours that there had been improper disclosure of information before the official announcement. There was newspaper speculation and Questions were asked in the House of Commons. Later, a Tribunal of Inquiry was set up which found that there had been no improper disclosure but which revealed much not previously known about the way the Treasury and the Bank of England worked, both separately and together. This article reconsiders selected aspects of the original study in the light of files recently released in the Public Record Office and of other publications since the book was published. It includes comments about the availability of files, open government, and the study of public administration in the United Kingdom.     

CAN GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS BE INFLEXIBLE TECHNOLOGY? THE OPERATIONAL STRATEGY REVISITED

Recent failures of government information systems to achieve their objectives have highlighted the risk involved in large-scale information technology projects. This article looks at one example, the computerization of the UK social security system, in the light of recent discussions of large-scale technologies and the particular problem of inflexible technologies as defined by Collingridge. It is argued that large-scale government computing projects can fit the criteria of inflexible technologies, although this is not an inherent feature of information technology. There are always more flexible alternatives available: this is illustrated using examples from both private and public organizations.     

THE CITIZEN AND THE ADMINISTRATION IN FRANCE — THE CONSEIL DETAT VERSUS OMBUDSMAN DEBATE REVISITED

The purpose of this article is to reappraise, in the light of recent French experience with the 'Ombudsman', the prevailing orthodoxy, shared by élite opinion in both France and Britain in the 1960s' that the Ombudsman and a system of administrative courts applying 'droit administratif' (a body of autonomous rules separate from private law), were mutually exclusive modes of securing redress for citizens aggrieved by administrative action. The thesis is advanced that in the contemporary welfare state, irrespective of particular political, administrative and legal traditions, a system of administrative law and an Ombudsman are complementary not competitive institutions.     

'SUPRANATIONALISM' IN QUESTION: BELIEFS,VALUES, AND THE SOCIALIZING POWER OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION REVISITED

Do international organizations affect the views of the people who work for them? Although increasingly sophisticated methods have been used to address this question, disagreement persists about whether the beliefs of staff are formed before they join, after they enter the institution, or are shaped by instrumental calculation. Drawing on an original dataset based on the first fully representative survey of the European Commission's workforce, this article breaks new ground by putting different definitions of ‘supranationalism’ to the test and by capturing multiple ways in which individuals may be affected by the experience of working for the organization. For the first time, it demonstrates that commitment to ‘supranationalism’ varies between Commission staff groupings, that the influences on belief vary with the measure of ‘supranationalism’ used, and that both post‐recruitment experience and pre‐recruitment roles play a part in shaping beliefs.     

THE PUBLIC/PRIVATE SECTOR CLEAVAGE REVISITED: THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT ON POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR IN 11 WEST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

This study explores a refined model of public/private sector cleavage voting. Assuming that market and work experiences are crucial for people to develop common political views, it investigates three contexts that shape government employees' willingness to vote as a single constituency: the branch of public sector production, the occupational status, and the type of service economy. Estimation results obtained from regressions on European Social Survey (ESS) data indicate that government employees in public health, education and service production rather than public administration utilize sector cleavage voting. Regardless of their actual occupational status, public health and education employees show persistently stronger attitudes in favour of expanding state responsibility. With respect to party choice, stronger signs of alignment along the sector cleavage are observed in Social Democratic service economies. In sum, the public/private sector cleavage continues to matter in a more complex way than a simple sector dichotomy would suggest.     

TOP‐DOWN AND BOTTOM‐UP: INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTS ON DEBT AND GRANTS AT THE ENGLISH AND GERMAN LOCAL LEVEL

This article investigates the impact of institutional factors on the relationship between grant funding and local debt in England and Germany. Using a panel dataset covering the period 2005–12, the research identifies a positive relationship between grants and local debt. The positive relationship between grants and debt is reduced due to the impact of political and administrative variables. The findings demonstrate three shortcomings of the current literature. First, in contrast to the dominant portrayal of German local administration as predominantly legalistic, partisan dynamics affect the allocation of grants to the German local level. Second, institutional variables operate differently depending upon grant type, providing a rationale against the scholarly practice of using aggregate grants. Third, grant mechanisms provide a promising key to unlock institutional dynamics in systems of multilevel governance, but only when scholars integrate institutional differences more explicitly in their research design than hitherto accounted for by political economy.