Policy punctuations in the UK: fluctuations and equilibria in central government expenditure since 1951

Jones and Baumgartner's punctuated equilibrium model of agenda change has reinvigorated decision-making theory; moreover their US budget project offers a set of techniques to apply to UK data. We replicate the method by plotting percentage budget changes in central government budgets to see whether the distribution is normally distributed as predicted by the incrementalist account or leptokurtic as hypothesized by the punctuated equilibrium model. Taking the period 1951–96, we create 405 data points from budget changes from the National Income Accounts ('Blue Book') on agriculture, defence, social security, education, health, housing, industry, law and order and transport, all adjusted using the GDP deflator at factor cost. We find that the budget changes form a leptokurtic distribution. Such a pattern appears in most policy sectors.     

On the nature of power: an examination of the governing elite and institutional power in Spain, 1939–92

This article summarizes a study of the political, bureaucratic and economic elites in Spain, from the Franco regime through the democratic transition to the socialist governments of the 1990s. Data on the people holding posts in one or more of these elite groups were used to test and extend the theory of elite circulation first formulated by Vilfredo Pareto. The data confirms that Spanish elites became more open to others in the democratic period. Up to the present time, they continue to be integrated through multi-positionality – many bureaucrats also hold political or economic posts – though to a lesser extent than in the past. Our empirical findings enable finer distinctions to be made about the different modes of elite circulation. These results show the changing nature of the networks that form when posts in different sectors become associated through multiple post-holding. These networks are an important component of the social fabric in Spain and elsewhere and deserve further investigation.     

Ministerial Resignations 1945–97

This article reports on data collected on ministerial resignations and non-resignations 1945–1997. It analyses the reasons why ministers resign and patterns that emerge in terms of the types of issues that are more likely to lead to resignation, and variances between different Prime Ministers, parties and over time. It provides the first fully quantified analysis of ministerial resignations in Britain in the post-war period to enhance the impressionistic analyses which have been offered before.     

台湾地区金融业促进制造业转型升级的经验

在中国经济新常态背景下,通过金融业改革促进产业转型是当今学术界研究的热门话题。本文以我国台湾地区为样本,以金融结构和产业结构的视角,回顾1960-1980年间的金融抑制时期、1980-2000年间的金融自由化时期、2000年后金融改革和国际化时期,在面临国际和岛内社会经济环境不断变化的情况下,台湾当局通过金融业促进制造业转型升级方面做的积极探索。并探讨了在台湾制造业升级过程中金融发展的作用。这些经验对中国大陆通过金融业促进制造业转型升级具有启示意义,值得借鉴。     

THE FUTURE OF POLICE AUTHORITIES: MEMBERS VIEWS

Part of the argument about police accountability concerns the role of police authorities, their membership and powers. The Conservative, Alliance and Labour Parties have developed policies which are broadly retentionist – leave things as they are – reformist – change the membership – and radical – empower police authorities to determine policy. The evidence suggests that police authority members' views, though broadly consistent with their party policies nationally, differ in some important respects. Conservatives are increasingly unhappy about the statutory co-option of magistrates. Alliance members appear not to favour an increase in the proportion of nonelected members. And many Labour councillors entertain doubts about the control model.     

Regulation in an Episodic Policy-Making Environment: The Water Industry in England and Wales

This article describes and analyses the evolving regulatory game in the post-privatized water industry. It highlights a regulatory environment that is more complex than that which existed under public ownership, and an industry which is subject to heavier regulation in the private sector than it was in the public sector. There has been erosion of the strict public/private divide following privatization. The article highlights an episodic and seemingly incongruous policy-making environment that defies consistent characterization: sometimes private consensus is the main feature and sometimes it is public conflict. It also illustrates that while there are two broad-based constituencies of interest active in the water sector — cost and environmental — the composition of these coalitions mutates depending on the issue being considered. Indeed, there are occasions when core constituency participants 'defect' and join the 'opposing side'.     

Indirect Causes And Effects In Policy Change: The Brent Spar Case

This article discusses the occupation of an oil-related structure called the Brent Spar in the British sector of the North Sea by Greenpeace protesters in 1995. Shell intended to 'dump' the buoy in the deep North Atlantic. The aftermath of the occupation and associated publicity was a change of policy about the disposal of the Spar by Shell, Europe's largest multinational company. The article considers alternative explanations for policy change – most importantly the influential propositions by Baumgartner and Jones (1993). The general importance of their work means that the opportunity is taken to set out their themes at some length, but the particular case suggests that their notion of change stemming from a redefinition of the problem may only imperfectly fit sudden policy changes of the Brent Spar type. The article argues that their 'venue shopping' concept better illuminates the case – but the significant venue change was geographical – i.e. from Britain to Germany – rather than institutional – i.e. from a policy community to an issue network. The case study superficially accords with an influential body of literature in the 1980s and 1990s that sees outcomes as changing through the mobilization of a wider range of participants in issue networks, but it is argued that there is no automatic link between an expanded roster of participants and outcomes if the decisive decision-making power is retained in the original closed system. The case study suggests there can be an illusion of an issue network when the dominance of a policy monopoly is publicly challenged – but where decision-making power is retained among original participants.     

CONSUMERISM AND THE PUBLIC SECTOR: HOW WELL DOES THE COAT FIT?

Consumerism attempts to redress the imbalance of power that exists between those who produce goods and services, and those for whom they are provided. To achieve this end, five basic principles have been evolved which seek to improve consumers' access, choice, information, redress and representation. The article examines the relevance of these principles to services provided by local government and the health service. Its conclusion – that they are useful but not necessarily enough – is perhaps surprising, given the author's concern to place consumers' interests centre stage in discussions about what public services are for, and how they should be run. The article then considers whether the messages of consumerism are reaching their mark, and finally points to those issues which managers of public services – both politicians and professionals – must face if consumerism is to leave a legacy of real value.     

THE DYNAMICS OF POLICY CHANGE: WBBYING AND WATER PRIVATIZATION

The privatization of the water industry was one of the most controversial and turbulent privatizations of the 1980s. The government undertook the project somewhat reluctantly, then the first plans had to be withdrawn, but eventually, the privatization of the industry was successfully completed in 1989. In this article, we first set out to provide a thorough account of the process of privatizing water, based on primary sources and exhaustive interviews. In doing so, we identity some major problems of established theories of British policy making: the process of water privatization clearly does not conform to any single model of policy making. Instead, individual 'episodes' of the policy process conform to different models. Arguing that existing theories of British policy making may have focused too narrowly on routine decision-making processes, we propose that a theory of the transformation of policy communities is required to understand the dynamics of radical policy change in Britain.     

CHANGES IN EDUCATION OUTPUTS IN ENGLISH LOCAL AUTHORITIES, 1949–1974

The literature on local outputs is dominated by cross-sectional investigations which suggest that the local socio-economic environment is a critical determinant of local policy. This paper argues that there is insufficient theoretical justification for adopting a cross-sectional methodology. It examines changes in education outputs in 57 English county borough s and 28 English county councils over the period 1949–74 and concludes that long-term trends in output change were little affected by local socio-economic conditions, changes in party control or changes in senior administrative personnel. The results suggest that case study analyses of internal policy-making processes are likely to give more insight into policy determination than current local output analyses.     

OFFICER-MEMBER RELATIONS IN COUNTY-LEVEL POLICY-MAKING FOR RURAL AREAS: THE CASE OF THE GLQUCESTERSHIRE STRUCTURE PLAN

Studies of rural planning have only recently begun to focus on concepts of policy-making and implementation which have been developed in urban and regional contexts. Although recognizing the need for inter-organizational frameworks, this paper investigates one particular factor in policy-making – officer-member relations – as illustrated in the structure plan-making process of Gloucestershire County Council. Through a partnership between senior officers who were able to orchestrate decision-making, and elite members who provided political support for technical policy justifications, a form of directed policy consensus was reached. The consensus in this particular structure plan was marked by the prominence of a political-bureaucratic goal to provide policy-responses to rural problems. This theme was diluted, however, when the plan moved from the local to the central arena of power.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
The Civil Servants: An Inquiry into Britain's Ruling Class Peter Kellner and Norman Crowther-Hunt.
A Professional Union: The Evolution of the Institution of Professional Civil Servants James E. Mortimer and Valerie A. Ellis.
From Humble Petition to Militant Action: A History of the Civil and Public Services Association, 1903–1978 Eric Wigharn.
Environmental Planning 1939–1949. Volume III, New Towns Policy J. B. Cullingworth.
Process and Structure in Higher Education Tony Becher and Maurice Kogan.
The Nuclear Power Decisions: British Policies, 1953–78 Roger Williams.
Decision Making for Energy Futures David Pearce, et al.
Called to Account: The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons, 1965166–1977/78 Vilma Flegmann.
The Irish Administrative System T. J. Barrington.
Civil Servants and Public Policy: A Comparative Study of International Secretariats Robert I. McLaren.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
The Management of Public Expenditure P.K. Else and G.P. Marshall.
The Department of Education and Science Sir William Pile.
Education John Mann.
Devolution Vernon Bogdanor.
Law and Politics: The House of Lords as a Judicial Body, 1800–1976 Robert Stevens.
Hospital Planning D. Allen.
Social Work in Britain: 1950–1975 Eileen Younghusband.
The West Riding County Council 1889–1974: Historical Studies B.J. Barber and M.W. Beresford.     

THE EDUCATION OF THE TREASURY: THE MEDIUMTERM FINANCIAL STRATEGY 1980–84

The first Thatcher government introduced an innovatory macro-economic plan – the medium-term financial strategy (MTFs) – in March 1980. It was the most notable example of how the Government sought to change the direction of post-war policy. This article traces the origins and formulation of the strategy, noting that it was Treasury-imposed, and monetarist in orientation. During its implementation however it was substantially modified. The phrase 'pragmatism and continuity' best describes this process. Aspects of macro-economic policy are introduced to develop this theme. There is clear evidence that the Treasury was 'educated' by the problems encountered: the objectives of the MTFS were not uniquely achievable simply because they were deliberately limited in scope. Nevertheless, the strategy has survived as a policy framework and freed from its monetarist dogma remains a useful means of co-ordinating objectives.     

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RIPA?

The financial history of the RIPA from its incorporation as a company in 1976 to 1989 was a volatile one; but there had been sufficient good years to justify cautious optimism as we entered 1990/91. However, a combination of circumstances – which, if they had occurred separately might have been overcome – were, taken together, to deliver the Institute a mortal blow. These led to a deteriorating cash-flow position. This looked to have been eased by a major restructuring and the sale of the International Division, but when the 1991/92 accounts were finalized the loss for the year was revealed as £241,000 and there was an excess of liabilities over assets of £231,000. An appeal was launched to corporate members, but before the results of this could be fully tested, the cash-flow position once again became critical and the bank lost confidence in the Institute's ability to trade out of its difficulties. The Council had no alternative but to proceed to receivership.     

RIVAL EXPLANATIONS OF PUBLIC OWNERSHIP, ITS FAILURE AND PRIVATIZATION

This article contrasts three types of explanation of three events – the initial nationalization of many British industries, mainly in the 1940s, the failure of most nationalized industries to be economically successful by the 1970s and the privatization of most of them in the 1980s and 1990s. Its first section summarizes briefly an ordinary historical account of each event as developed elsewhere at greater length (in Foster 1992). The second section considers Chicagoan and Virginian explanations of the same events; and whether they are consistent with the other historical explanations. It concludes that Chicagoan theories do not explain any of these episodes plausibly, except possible rail nationalization, but in that case it worked in any sense only over an implausibly long period. Virginian type explanations have greater power in explaining both nationalization and its so-called'failure'thereafter. It is more difficult to explain privatization satisfactorily in Virginian terms.     

Book Reviews

Book Reveiwed in this article
Towards a Philosophy of Administration Christopher Hodgkinson.
The British Philosophy of Administration Rosamund Thomas.
Working at Stormont John A. Oliver
Parliament and Public Spending: The Expenditure Committee of the House of Commons, 1970–76 Ann Robinson.
Ombudsmen Compared Frank Stacey.
Public Service Inquiries in Australia Edited by R. F. I. Smith and Patrick Weller
Organizational Effectiveness in a Multi-National Bureaucracy Hans J. Michelmann.
Health Services: Their Nature and Organization and the Role of Patients, Doctors and the Health Professions Edited by Elliott Jaques.
Strategy and Conflict in Metropolitan Housing K. Young and J. Kramer.
Representation and Administrative Tribunals Anne Frost and Coral Howard.
Cumulative Index to Public Administration Vols. 1–55: 1923–1977 Mohinder Singh and R. N. Sharma.     

REVIEWS

THE LIMITS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Nevil Johnson
DEMOCRACY AND MARKET SYSTEM Charles E. Lindblom
DECISIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS James G. March
CUTBACK MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC BUREAUCRACIES: POPULAR THEORIES AND OBSERVED OUTCOMES IN WHITEHALL Andrew Dunsire and Christopher Hood
HEAD OF THE CIVIL SERVICE – A STUDY OF SIR WARREN FISHER Eunan O'Halpin
MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY Geoffrey Marshall (ed.)
PRIVATE GAIN AND PUBLIC SERVICE – THE ASSOCIATION OF FIRST DIVISION CIVIL SERVANTS Barry J. O'Toole
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE MANAGEMENT: SELF-INSTRUCTION PACKAGE Cabinet Office and HM Treasury
THE NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY 1982–1986: A CONSTITUTIONAL EXPERIMENT Cornelius O'Leary, Sydney Elliott and R. A. Wilford
MANAGING THE ENABLING AUTHORITY Rodney Brooke
ACCOUNTING FOR PUBLIC POLICY: POWER, PROFESSIONALS AND POLITICS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT David Rosenberg
AN INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGEMENT Ian Taylor and George Popham (eds.)
TESTING THE LIMITS OF SOCIAL WELFARE – INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON POLICY CHANGES IN NINE COUNTRIES Robert Morris (ed.)
GOVERNMENT AND THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BRITAIN AND WEST GERMANY Wyn Grant, William Paterson and Colin Whitston
THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN AS POLICE OFFICERS John Carrier
A HISTORY OF DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL 1888–1989 Jeffrey Stanyer
THE TREASURY UNDER MRS THATCHER Leo Pliatzky
CHARITIES AND GOVERNMENT Alan Ware
GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE US, CANADA AND THE UK Wyn Grant     

Ethics, values and behaviours: comparison of three case studies examining the paucity of leadership in government

Three societies with similar initiatives for public service re-configuration and reform – the UK, Canada and Australia – are examined to highlight the many-faceted issues of public service ethics and the different approaches these governments have taken to re-building public trust and enhancing public service ethics in times of rapid change. These efforts for re-building an ethical public service are scrutinized according to four criteria for effectively leading change. Changes of public service values are also analysed as well as their implications for public servants.
Effectively, applied leadership is identified as the pillar of ethical practice – emphasizing the need for quality leadership development through on-the-job experience. Although legislation and codification are seen as necessary for building an ethical infrastructure that can help employees out of encountered dilemmas, the way forward is seen as nurturing an environment of trust and vigilance in which ethics are promoted through exemplary behaviour of leaders and employees alike.