bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
JUDICIAL REVIEW AND THE ‘CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT’
Authors: RAWLINGS H. F.
Published: April 2007

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.
THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF SPECIAL EDUCATION POLICY: WHERE DID THE 1981 ACT FIT IN?
Authors: WELTON JOHN , EVANS JENNIFER
Published: April 2007

The passage of legislation is just one point in the process of negotiation and bargaining which formed the will to legislate and continues throughout the period of policy implementation. Using the 1981 Education Act as a case study, this paper develops a conceptual framework which sees education legislation as a significant reference point, a statement of government intent, but implementation as a political process involving negotiation, bargaining and compromise between different sectors of government, between central and local government, between education, health and social services, between administrators and professionals, and with parents.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL DIMENSION
Authors: CORNFORD JAMES
Published: April 2007

This was the RIPA Chairman's address to the Institute's Annual General Meeting held on 4 December 1985.
INSTITUTIONAL ADAPTATION IN THE UK NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY
Authors: KEMP RAY
Published: April 2007

Public inquiries into controversial development proposals have themselves become increasingly controversial in recent years. Despite their increasing length and cost, such proceedings remain part of the administrative process – the Inspector's report serving to‘inform the minister's mind. This paper examines certain features of the Sizewell B Inquiry and draws attention to the ability of the applicants to respond to criticisms raised at the hearings through various forms of institutional adaptation. Changes to the Central Electricity Generating Boards case on the organization of project management, to the management of the nuclear site licencing process, and to provisions for future nuclear reactor choice are highlighted. Significantly, each of these areas had been the subject of particular investigations undertaken at the behest of the inquiry Inspector. The paper concludes by raising a number of questions concerning the implications of this singularly interactive process.
DEVELOPING STATE AUDIT IN BRITAIN
Authors: GARRETT JOHN
Published: April 2007

This paper discusses the development of the British state audit system exercised by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the National Audit Office (NAO). It briefly describes the concerns which led to a campaign for reforming our audit arrangements and to the passing of the National Audit Act in 1983 and considers ways in which that Act could be used to increase the effectiveness of parliamentary and public accountability of central government in the light of new developments in the management of departments.
THE PARADOX OF POLICY DIVERSITY IN A UNITARY STATE: COMMUNITY CARE IN BRITAIN
Authors: HUNTER DAVID J. , WISTOW GERALD
Published: April 2007

Studies of policy‐making and management in health and related fields have generally been confined to England even when professing to embrace Britain or the United Kingdom. The assumption of a unitary state in which the policy lead is given by Westminster/Whitehall is shown to be grossly misleading in the case of community care policy. Considerable variations exist not only in policy means but also in policy ends. The paper demonstrates the limitations of studying health and personal social services adopting a unitary state perspective. It argues for more intra‐Britain comparative work aimed at evaluating the costs and benefits of service variations in different policy fields.
MEASURING NEED IN THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE RESOURCE ALLOCATION FORMULA: STANDARDIZED MORTALITY RATIOS OR SOCIAL DEPRIVATION?
Authors: MAYS NICHOLAS
Published: April 2007

All methods of dividing public expenditure between competing claims become contentious, particularly when they rely on social indicators of need. The Resource Allocation Working Party (RAW) formula devised in 1976 for distributing National Health Service financial resources fairly between different parts of England relies on the size, age/sex structure and mortality rates (in the form of standardized mortality ratios – SMRS) of populations as combined surrogates for their need for health care. This paper aims to demonstrate three things: first, that RAW'S approach in selecting SMRS was sure‐footed; second, that no better proxy of health care need which could be used in RAW has been produced since RAW; and third, that the continuing criticism of SMRS has been sustained by political pressures within the NHS. The result has been the application of ever more indirect and complex surrogates for‘need in the resource allocation process which are known to be contaminated by the prevailing unequal supply of health service facilities.
CRITERIA FOR TECHNOLOGICAL CHOICE
Authors: OTWAY HARRY , SIMMS D. L.
Published: April 2007

This paper examines the question of what factors determine whether a hazardous activity is ‘acceptable’. We conclude that there is no simple answer to this question which can be derived from risk analysis, but that qualitative criteria can be developed to help decisionmakers evaluate risk analysis results. A preliminary set of criteria is proposed.
THE PUBLIC SERVICE ORIENTATION: ISSUES AND DILEMMAS
Authors: STEWART JOHN , CLARKE MICHAEL
Published: April 2007

The public service orientation sets service for the public as the key organizational value, providing motivation and purposes both for the local authority and its staff. This article describes the public service orientation before focusing on the major issues which this orientation raises. In particular, it examines service for, not to, the public; the ways in which the public service Orientation differs from consumerism; and the relationship to the political process. Finally, the article surveys the dilemmas posed by the public service orientation.
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF HOUSING POLICY: THE SCOTTISH SPECIAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION AND
Authors: AL‐QADDO HUNAIN , RODGER RICHARD
Published: April 2007

Extreme housing conditions in inter‐war urban Scotland form the background to the creation of a specialist agency, the Scottish Special Housing Association, charged with the responsibility to both relieve the housing situation and provide employment. The expansion of SSHA activities, which by 1980 made it the second largest housing authority in Scotland with 10,000 dwellings, is examined. The escalation of SSHA activities is considered in the light of inter‐organizational relationships between the SSHA and the Scottish Office. The paper concludes that in the successive reformulations of housing policy the SSHA was not neutral, that it frequently anticiated policy reorientations, and was thus well placed to execute new policies once formally announced. Though it conformed to the broad outline of a‘mandated agency with elements of power and resource dependency, the SSHA successfully established a degree of operational autonomy while simultaneously offering the Scottish Office a mechanism to contain the power of local government.
POLICY‐MAKING AND THE SCOTTISH OFFICE: THE DESIGNATION OF CUMBERNAULD NEW TOWN
Authors: KEATING MICHAEL , CARTER CHRISTOPHER
Published: April 2007

The role of the Scottish Office in policy‐making has been subject to a number of interpretations. It is difficult to regard it as having its own reserved policy spheres but it is clear that in certain circumstances it has the ability to forge its own policy lines. In the 1950s, in contradiction to the stated policy of the then Conservative Government. the Scottish Office was able to secure the designation of a new town at Cumbernauld. The main impetus for this policy came from the civil servants in the Department of Health for Scotland, seeking to preserve the philosophy of the 1946 Clyde Valley Plan. The case study throws considerable light on the bargaining process within government, the role of the secretary of state as spokesman for Scottish interests and the way in which the Scottish Office can gain Cabinet approval for its proposals.
PREFABS: A STUDY IN POLICY‐MAKING
Authors: GAY OONAGH
Published: April 2007

This article examines the administrative process which led to the construction of 160,000 prefabs between 1946 and 1948. The links of industrialists with government, the influence of Churchill, the rivalry between the key Ministries of Works and Health, and an influx of enthusiasts for prefabrication into the administration, all had their part to play in the adoption of the prefab programme. Implementation, however, involved unforeseen delays and expense, and a major unintended consequence was a move against increased centralization of public house‐building. The prefab programme was one of the first examples of the dangers of relying on technology as a solution to housing shortage, but the manner in which this badly planned and expensive panacea made its appearance also illustrates how far policy‐making in practice falls short of the ideal ‘rational’ model. Instead of choosing between conflicting policy options the wartime government preferred to pursue a number of them simultaneously.
HOUSING BENEFIT: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW AND ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICE
Authors: LOVELAND IAN
Published: April 2007

This paper draws on data gathered during fieldwork conducted in 1986. It attempts to describe and explain the substantive and procedural nature of three local authorities’exercise of discretionary powers in the housing benefit scheme. Particular emphasis is placed on the extent to which administrative practices conform to legislative requirement, on the prescriptive influence of councillors over the administrative process and on the appellate role of the quasi‐judicial housing benefit review board. The paper suggests that an understanding of the dynamics of the administrative process can be found only through a dissection of each organizations’respective ‘administrative culture’, a multi‐faceted common‐sense rationale comprising political, moral, organizational and environmental factors which may be either mutually supportive or contradictory.
UNDERSTANDING CHANGE IN THE NHS
Authors: PETTIGREW ANDREW , McKEE LORNA , FERLIE EWAN
Published: April 2007

This paper presents a novel and distinctive approach to the study of change within the NHS. Central to the paper's approach is the view that research on change in health care systems should be processual, comparative, pluralist, and historically based. Guiding such a view is a meta‐analytical framework which contends that theoretically sound and practically useful research on change should involve the continuous interplay between ideas about the context, the process, and the content of change together with skill in regulating the relations between the three (Pettigrew 1985a, 1985b). The paper has five sections. Section one examines some of the contemporary pressures for change in the NHS and draws attention to the gap which often exists between statements of strategic intention and their operational implementation. Section two reveals our distinctive analytical approach to the study of service changes and clarifies the theoretical underpinnings of our work. Section three offers an extended critical review of recent research and writing on change in health care organizations. Section four summarizes our findings from the literature review and reaffirms the novelty and significance of our chosen approach. Section five provides an overview.
IMPLEMENTING EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IN THE 1980s: AN OVERVIEW
Authors: LOVENDUSKI JONI
Published: April 2007

Although it is over ten years since major legislation was enacted, equal opportunities remains a controversial issue in Britain. This has affected its implementation in a variety of ways. The article reviews arguments over the meaning of equal opportunities policy, its meaning in the British case and the way it is affected by the British conception of rights. Consideration is given to the experience of implementation by the relevant administrative agencies and local authorities. Particular attention is paid to the area of training. A concluding discussion suggests that market forces may provide the impetus for new developments in the implementation of British equality policy.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICIES AND RACIAL INEQUALITY: THE ROLE OF PUBLIC POLICY
Authors: SOLOMOS JOHN
Published: April 2007

This article examines the seeming contradiction between the publicly stated objective of successive governments to promote greater equality of opportunity for racial minorities and the limited impact of successive policies and programmes on processes of racial discrimination and exclusion in British society. The article begins by outlining the different conceptual approaches used to analyse the development of public policies on racial inequality. It then analyses the main aspects of national policy change in this area over the past two decades, and more recent initiatives which have sought to use local government as a vehicle for promoting racial equality. This analysis offers a critical review of the achievements and limitations of both past and present policies. The concluding section takes up the question of the prospects of change in the future.
BRITAIN'S ADMINISTRATIVE ELITE: PERMANENT SECRETARIES 1900–1986
Authors: THEAKSTON KEVIN , FRY GEOFFREY K.
Published: April 2007

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.
CHANGING AGENDAS AND POLICY COMMUNITIES: AGRICULTURAL ISSUES IN THE 1930s AND THE 1980s
Authors: SMITH MARTIN J.
Published: April 2007

Pluralists have argued that the political agenda is relatively open. If a group or party apply enough pressure then new issues should have access to the political arena. However, the theories of policy communities and the third dimension of power suggest that issues can be kept off the political agenda. Agriculture seems to provide an example where for forty years new issues did not emerge. Yet in the 1930s and 1980s pressures to change the agricultural agenda have existed. This raises the problem of how, if the agenda is controlled, new issues are debated. Traditionally, agenda change has been explained through the activities of pressure groups but this paper argues that this view is inadequate where a policy community exists. Therefore it suggests that agendas change when structural factors change perceptions and the dominant beliefs of the policy‐makers no longer match reality.
LONDON DOCKLANDS: AN ANALYSIS OF POWER RELATIONS BETWEEN UDCs AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Authors: BATLEY RICHARD
Published: April 2007

This article sets up a framework for examining the differences and relations between Urban Development Corporations and local government. It analyses the interest to which the two sorts of body are responsive, the organizational structures which condition their relationship and the styles of decision‐making through which they operate. This framework is used to analyse the London docklands experience with the objective of distinguishing the special aspects of this case from those which are likely to be generally applicable.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA AND NEW ZEALAND
Authors: HAZELL ROBERT
Published: April 2007

In 1982, Australia, Canada and New Zealand introduced freedom of information (FOI) laws. The author visited all three countries in 1986‐7 to study how the legislation was being used, and its impact on the workings of Westminster‐style government. A table summarizes the main features of the legislation. The article discusses the different appeal mechanisms; the implications for ministerial accountability; the level of take‐up; the different categories of user; administrative costs and benefits; staffing requirements, refusal rates, fees, etc. Apart from requests for personal files, the level of demand has been relatively low; ministerial accountability remains unchanged; the legislation has successfully protected government secrets; and the overall cost has not proved too great. FOI has not realized its more ambitious objectives, such as increasing public participation in government decision‐making; but at the same time, it has not fulfilled many of its opponents' worst fears.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE BRITISH CENTRAL STATE, PART I: FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS
Authors: DUNLEAVY PATRICK
Published: April 2007

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.
THE POVERTY OF SCIENCE: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL POLICY UNDER MRS THATCHER
Authors: EDGERTON DAVID , HUGHES KIRSTY
Published: April 2007

The present government's policy for publicly funded science, which centres on selectivity and centralization, could damage Britain's capacity to innovate. The policy follows from a desire by government to control the scientific community and from the advice of some scientists and science policy experts. This paper details the contradictions in the government's thinking on industrial and scientific questions, and challenges the central, and usually unexamined, assumptions which are used to justify existing policy for science.
CORE EXECUTIVE DECISION MAKING ON HIGH TECHNOLOGY ISSUES: THE CASE OF THE ALVEY REPORT
Authors: KELIHER LEO
Published: April 2007

Existing accounts of core executive decision making underestimate the limitations of information and technical expertise which significantly constrain the ability of the Prime Minister or Cabinet to appraise or control complex initiatives originating in diverse, specialized policy communities. This paper explores these limits in relation to a single high technology issue, the launching of the £350 million Alvey project in 1982, designed to gear up the British information technology industry to compete more effectively in world markets. The project involved the government injecting large‐scale public funding in order to foster precompetitive research and development in the industry, and was administered by a joint government‐industry directorate. This initiative therefore directly contradicted new right prescriptions against government interference in industry and corporatist patterns of decision making, yet it nonetheless secured cabinet and prime ministerial approval. The article shows how core executive actors were technologically incompetent to assess the proposal; how the focus of their attention consequently fastened on to a few tangential aspects of the issue; and how the policy modifications resulting from Thatcher's interventions in particular were either counter‐productive in terms of the PM'S own objectives or were quickly evaded by the bureaucracy and organized interests at the implementation stage.
CHARGING FOR PUBLIC SERVICES
Authors: ROSE RICHARD
Published: April 2007

Our understanding of charges for public goods and services is currently deficient because of a lack of an empirically relevant political framework for analysing information and data about charges for public programmes. This paper analyses the context and practice of charging for programmes and reports evidence of the great variety of charges now employed by British government. The pattern shown cannot be explained by prescriptive theories of market efficiency or merit goods, as an effort to obtain signals independent of revenue, or by party differences; the pattern must be understood as an historical inheritance. To understand inherited commitments it is necessary to secure answers to nine questions in a paradigm of who pays what, when and how. Three steps that British government could take to improve knowledge of charges currently accounting for £9bn in public income are identified in the conclusion.
T. H. GREEN AND THE ETHICS OF SENIOR OFFICIALS IN BRITISH CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
Authors: OTOOLE BARRY J.
Published: April 2007

This article is an attempt to move away from microeconomics in the study of administration and to concentrate on British administrative ethics from a philosophical perspective. Thus, ethics is used here not in the sense of the ethics of managers dealing with accounts but as the ‘science’ of ranking moral values. The intention of the article is to examine how political theory can be used to help illustrate the dilemmas of public servants working in a climate which is distinctly hostile to disinterested ideals. The ideas of T. H. Green, the English Idealist philosopher who contributed so much to our understanding of public service, form the basis of the theoretical discussion, and the work of senior officials in Whitehall is the material used for illustrative purposes. Where do the loyalties of civil servants lie? What are their duties and responsibilities to ministers? To whom, for what, and how are civil servants accountable?
AUDIT IN THE HUMAN RESOURCES FIELD
Authors: McBRAYNE LAN
Published: April 2007

The Whitehall machine is a fascinating phenomenon. It is vast in scale, complex in structure and second only to mothers‐in‐law as a source of cheap jokes. My job, as head of the Human Resources Division in the National Audit Office until earlier this year, was to look at the way in which it works and spot the places where a drop of oil would make it work more smoothly.
COMPULSORY COMPETITIVE TENDERING IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: THE FIRST ROUND
Authors: PAINTER JOE
Published: April 2007

This article presents the results of a survey of the initial impact of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) under the Local Government Act 1988. After an outline of the provisions of the legislation and the mechanisms for their implementation the outcome of the first round of CCT is described. While most services have been retained in the public sector, a number of authorities have chosen to use private contractors. Differences in the patterns between different types of authority are examined. Finally, the paper considers the prospects for subsequent phases of CCT.
THE BUREAU‐POLITICS OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Authors: ROSENTHAL URIEL , HART PAUL't , KOUZMIN ALEXANDER
Published: April 2007

Bureau‐political tensions and competition are an often neglected, yet crucial element in crisis management. Bureau‐politics in crisis management runs counter to pervasive notions that portray centralization and concentration of power as the dominant mode of administrative response to crisis. This article presents empirical evidence suggesting the importance of bureau‐politics in the planning, response and post‐crisis stages of crisis management at both strategic and operational levels of action. Again contrary to conventional wisdom, it is argued that such interagency tensions may fulfill various positive functions: they put crisis agencies to the test; they serve to counteract ‘groupthink tendencies; they foster a certain degree of openness; and they may facilitate democratic control of far‐reaching crisis management policies.
THE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE IN THE FCO
Authors: TOMKYS ROGER
Published: April 2007

This article focuses on the Diplomatic Wing of the Foreign and Commonwealth office (FCO) in this country and diplomatic missions overseas. The Overseas Development Administration, though brigaded with the Diplomatic Wing under the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, is substantially a separate organization staffed by Home Civil Servants and with its own Accounting Officer. Though we work closely together, the organizations are distinct.
PLANNING AND CONTROLLING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE IN THE UK, PART I: THE TREASURY'S PUBLIC EXPEIWITURE SURVEY
Authors: THAIN COLIN , WRIGHT MAURICE
Published: April 2007

The Treasury's annual survey of public expenditure is the central element in planning and controlling public expenditure. While its purpose remains similar to that in the 1970s, the principles governing its preparation, the methodology employed and the conduct of negotiations between the Treasury and the departments have changed with successive attempts to control both the total and programme allocations more effectively. This article examines and explains the process of preparing the survey, through the main stages from the decisions about the size of total public spending in the context of the government's macroeconomic strategy to the announcement in the Autumn Statement of the planned totals and allocations for the next three years and finally to the publication in February of the departmental Public Expenditure Chapters. Part I1 [Summer issue] analyses the effects and effectiveness of the survey processes, and discusses whose interests have been best served.
ISSUE NETWORKS AND THE RESTRUCTURING OF THE BRITISH AND WEST GERMAN COAL INDUSTRIES IN THE 1980s
Authors: TAYLOR ANDREW J
Published: April 2007

This article uses policy network theory to examine comparatively the politics of the British and West German coal industries in the 1980s. It considers the reasons why policy in Britain was directed at restructuring and in West Germany at preserving the industry's existing structure. It focuses on the dynamics of network stability and change, and the growing importance of the international dimension in domestic policy making, a factor overlooked by network theory. The article contrasts the Thatcher and Kohl governments which, though both avowedly committed to free‐markets, pursued very different policies in the coal industry. The article concludes with a brief assessment of network theory.
PROFESSIONALISM AND PUBLIC POLICY MAKING IN GREECE: THE INFLUENCE OF ENGINEERS IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORMS
Authors: CHRISTOFILOPOULOU PWKEVY
Published: April 2007

The influence of Professionals in the formulation of public policies has been an issue of scientific research in the past decade. In this article we deal with a less examined as of this issue. Professional influence is analysed in the context of Greek public policy, where the intensely centralized administration is dominated by the demands of political clientelism. Focusing on the case of the influence of peers in local government reform between 1974 and 1989, the article reveals the role of Trofessiondism in the hesitant decentraiization of functions and resources to local authorities and the initiation of institutions that have allowed the birth and development of new organizations at the central and the local level. Given the shift towards partydirected patronage and the intense party politiciza‐tion of professional and trade organizations, the central state aparatus and the local authorities in post‐dictatorship Greece, professional influence in putlic policies is seen to be closely related to the rise of professionals in party hierarchies. The catalytic role of professionals in the promotion of reform policies reducing organizational diversity and fragmentation is understood within the context of the contradiction between the need to adapt state structures and practices in a rapidl changing international environment and the preservation of traditional political and acyministrative forces in key positions of the power structure.
RESTRUCTURING GOVERNMENT NEW ZEALAND STYLE
Authors: WISTRICH ENID
Published: April 2007

The fourth Labour government (1984–90) has carried out a radical restructuring of executive government comparable to corresonding reforms in Britain. The changes described have been carried out in government Bepartments, state‐owned enterprises, the civil service, minister/civil servant relationships, regional and local overnment, and in the organization of the health and education services. The reforms folfow a consistent blueprint based on ideas of economists andublic choice theorists, especially those relating to agency theory and transaction costs. The themes of the New Zealand blueprint are ‘decoupling’ policy from service delivery, a PrinapaVagent model of managerial decentralization, new financial accounting systems, contracting for service provision and monitoring managerial performance. In implementation, where there are elected authorities but government is the main funding agent, there is uncertainty about the degree of discretion and appropriate accountabilities. Implementation has also illustrated the problems of defining desired outputs and outcomes and in malung them useable by professional workers and elected representatives.
DRAWING LESSONS FROM US EXPERIENCE: AN ELECTED MAYOR FOR BRITISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Authors: STOKER GERRY , WOLMAN HAROLD
Published: April 2007

Taking as a starting point the suggestion that US‐style elected mayors might be appropriate for British local government this article explores the implications of such a development. It analyses the experience of the United States and notes crucial differences between the local government systems of Britain and the United States. These differences require a discussion of certain adaptations and changes that would need to be considered before an elected mayor in Britain could be established. The extent to which such an emulation would constitute an improvement to the current British local government system is considered. The article demonstrates the potential of prospective evaluation. It asks what we can learn from the experience of another country by projecting that experience onto the particular setting an circumstances of our own country. It provides otherwise unavailable evidence about the likely effects of a potentially important reform. The article concludes with an assessment of the general case for experimenting with an elected mayor in British local government and the prospects that such experiments will be taken forward.
INTEREST GROUPS AND BUREAUCRATS IN A PARTY‐DEMOCRACY: THE CASE OF ISRAEL
Authors: MSHAI YAEL
Published: April 2007

The relationship between interest groups and state bureaucrats in a party democracy tends to be based on parentela ties involving party mediation and resulting in deep and reciprocal commitment. The contacts between administrators and interest groups in Israel present a deviant case. The paper shows that despite the fact that Israel portrays the characteristics of a party democracy, interest groups gravitate towards the administration rather than toward political parties. Senior government officials interact extensively with interest groups; but at the same time they tend to discount the groups' activity. These deviations have been explained by the limited scope of interest group demands and the hybrid nature of Israel's administrative culture.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE AND PERFORMANCE: LESSONS FROM AMERICA?
Authors: BOYNE GEORGE A.
Published: April 2007

The debate in the UK on the reform of local government structure is poorly informed by empirical evidence. This article bridges part of the empirical gap by drawing upon analyses of structural effects in the USA. Two main dimensions of structure are outlined: fragmentation and concentration, both of which can vary vertically and horizontally. Fourteen structural hypotheses are identified and categorized as technical, competitive and political effects. The empirical evidence from the USA suggests that fragmentation is associated with lower spending and concentration is associated with higher spending. The implications of the evidence for structural reform in the UK are analysed. It is concluded that the creation of a single‐tier system may not lead to greater efficiency, and that the advantages of a two‐tier system have been underestimated.
POLICY MAKING AND THE DEMONSTRATION EFFECT: PRIVATIZATION IN A DEPRIVED REGION
Authors: CONNOLLY MICHAEL E. H. , STARK ANDREW W.
Published: April 2007

The aims of public policies are not always clearly articulated by ministers. Further the aims that are stated may not reflect all – or indeed the most important – aims. In some cases declared policy aims bear little relationship to the real intentions of ministers in undertaking an initiative. In other cases policy decisions are intended as symbolic statements, demonstrating government attitudes on a range of issues beyond the specific matter under consideration. These ideas are explored in the context of the privatizations of Harland and Wolff and Shorts, two major industrial government‐owned companies in Northern Ireland. The article concludes that government sought to use the privatizations as a symbolic statement, namely to demonstrate that the heavy dependence on the public sector within Northern Ireland had to be reduced.
ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF DEPARTMENTAL CHIEF EXECUTIVES: PERSPECTIVES FROM NEW ZEALAND
Authors: BOSTON JONATHAN
Published: April 2007

This article examines the new approach to specifying and assessing the performance of departmental chief executives in New Zealand introduced in 1988 by the fourth Labour government (1984–1990). Drawing on the findings of a series of interviews with ministers, chief executives and other senior public servants conducted between late 1989 and late 1991 by a number of researchers, the article outlines the origins and implementation of the new policy framework, and evaluates its strengths and weaknesses. From the evidence available to date, it appears that the new model has won the support of most of the parties directly affected, and that it has enhanced the accountability of chief executives to their portfolio minister(s). However, the implementation of the new regime has highlighted the inherent problems of assessing the performance of senior personnel in the public sector and of imposing sanctions in the event of substandard performance. In addition, various issues of a constitutional nature have arisen concerning the roles and responsibilities of chief executives, the balance of power between chief executives and their portfolio minister(s), and the proper role of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in the new accountability framework.
ADMINISTERING BRITAIN'S ARMS TRADE
Authors: PHYTHIAN MARK , LITTLE WALTER
Published: April 2007

This article examines the administration of Britain's overseas arms trade through a consideration of the role of the main government departments concerned with its control and regulation ‐ the Department of Trade and Industry, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence. Additionally it examines the activities of ‘arms‐length’ public agencies such as the Defence Export Services Organisation and International Military Services whose job it is to promote arms sales. It concludes that while the promotion function may (but does not have to) run counter to that of control, the latter is comprehensively and competently administered. If it fails ‐ and it has done so recently ‐ it is because of political intervention and not administrative shortcomings.
PAY DETERMINATION IN THE BRITISH CIVIL SERVICE SINCE 1979
Authors: KESSLER IAN
Published: April 2007

This article traces the development of pay determination in the British civil service over the last decade. It argues that after a period of instability, the pay system established at the end of the 1980s embraced rather than reconciled two competing traditions of pay determination; one based upon the importance of traditional compatibility criteria and the other stressing flexibility to meet managerial needs. As a consequence of the difficulties which emerged under these new arrangements, neither the unions nor the government have fully achieved their pay objectives. While the creation of executive agencies may herald a more fundamental change in pay determination based upon devolved structures and systems, the nature and extent of this change still depends upon resolution of the tension between competing central government concerns to retain financial control and allow agencies to adapt to meet local needs and circumstances.
COMPLAINTS, REMEDIES AND THE HEALTH SERVICE COMMISSIONER
Authors: GIDDIES PHILIP
Published: April 2007

The Government's Citizen's and Patient's Charters see the Health Service Commissioner scheme playing an important part in securing effective remedies for complaints about administration in the NHS. The scheme is assessed against the background of the fragmented nature of the NHS complaints systems. Because of jurisdictional limitations the Commissioner can only deal with a small proportion of NHS complaints. An analysis of HSC cases between 1986 and 1991 shows that it is those about complaint‐handling itself which have been most frequently upheld. The most frequent remedy achieved is an HSC‐delivered apology, which is not always found satisfactory, but the HSC places equal emphasis on providing a ‘quality audit’ and feedback mechanism for health authorities. If the HSC is to play the role implied by the charters, it will be necessary to consider removing the limitations on his jurisdiction which exclude clinical Judgement and the work of family practitioners.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RIPA?
Authors: SHELLEY IVOR
Published: April 2007

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.
THE RISE OF THE INTERMEDIATE LEVEL INSTITUTION IN BRITISH PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: THE CASE OF THE ARTS AND TRAINING
Authors: EVANS BRENDAN J. , TAYLOR ANDREW J.
Published: April 2007

During the 1980s there was both centralization and decentralization in the British policy process. The centre was to be responsible for broad policy whilst the institutions in closest contact with those who consumed or used a service were to be responsible for implementation. This style was, in part, a reaction to the perception that organized interests acted as a severe restraint on the centre. Experience, however, demonstrated government's dependence on the cooperation of organized interests and their intermediate organizations. This article argues that effective policy‐making requires the formation of intermediate organizations linking macro‐ and micro‐institutions. These organizations are vital for communication, representation and negotiation and therefore they inevitably constrain the centre's freedom. Effective policy requires a partnership between the centre and sub‐centre via intermediate institutions and these institutions are likely to become more important as decentralization continues. The role of intermediate institutions are explored via case studies of training and arts policy.
IS THE TREATY OF MAASTRICHT AN ADEQUATE‘CONSTITUTION’FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION?
Authors: WINCOTT DANIEL
Published: April 2007

This article explores the likely impact of the Treaty of Maastricht on the institutional balance of the European Community and the new European Union. It places particular emphasis on the impact of the Treaty on the role of the European Court of Justice, an institution which has been generally ignored by political scientists. However, it does not accept the received wisdom of legal scholars concerning the Court, which suggests that the Court, acting on its own has saved the Community from self‐destruction. Instead, the analysis presented here places the Court in a political context. On the basis of this understanding, the potential of the Treaty of Maastricht to unravel some of the existing structure of the European Community is drawn out.
PROTECTING PRIVACY ACROSS BORDERS: EUROPEAN POLICIES AND PROSPECTS
Authors: RAAB CHARLES D. , BENNETT COLIN J.
Published: April 2007

This article discusses the attempt to create a system governing the use of personal data within the European Community (EC) and between it and other countries. First, the main issues involved in data protection are reviewed, and the background to current developments in international standard‐setting activity is traced. The factors that affect the possibility of harmonization are then examined, and the ability of the EC to establish further convergence in data protection policy is commented upon. It is argued that, while there continue to be notable strides towards a convergence of statutory principles, of scope, and of the powers of regulatory instruments, there will remain significant obstacles to the convergence of practice.
TOWARDS A EUROPEAN NERVOUS SYSTEM: THE ROLE OF THE ECONOMIC UNION
Authors: RIDGE MARTIN
Published: April 2007

This article introduces the European Nervous System, a system of interoperable, networked, trans‐European telematics applications linking public administrations in the Community member states. The reasons for its development are described, and progress to date outlined. The article also touches on its funding and management structures, and seeks to draw out some of the issues involved in the development of the ENS and the lessons to be learnt.
TERRITORIAL PUBLIC EXPENDITURE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Authors: HEALD DAVID
Published: April 2007

Although the devolution plans of the 1970s were abandoned, those debates had far‐reaching consequences for the determination of relative public expenditure levels in the United Kingdom. The Barnett formula (10:5:85) of 1978 provided that increases in public expenditure in Scotland and in Wales for specific services within the territorial blocks would be determined according to the formula consequences of changes in equivalent English expenditure. A parallel formula allocated 2.75 per cent of the change in equivalent expenditure in Great Britain to Northern Ireland. The essential distinction is between base expenditure (whose current levels are carried forward) and incremental expenditure (which is determined by formula). The predicted convergence of block expenditure relatives on the LJK per capita average was frustrated by formula bypass, and in Scotland by relative population decline. The background to the 1992 recalibration of the Barnett formula (10.66:6.02100.00 and Northern Ireland 2.87 per cent) is analysed. Territorial block expenditure is set within the structure of territorial public expenditure aggregates, and evidence is assembled on identifiable public expenditure relatives between countries and by English region.
TENANT PARTICIPATION AND TENANT POWER IN BRITISH COUNCIL HOUSING
Authors: CAIRNCROSS LIZ , CLAPHAM DAVID , GOODLAD ROBINA
Published: April 2007

In this article we examine the relationship between tenant participation and tenants’ power. This is done by adopting an approach to power put forward by Clegg (1989) and using it to examine the findings of a study of tenant Participation based on a national survey of local authorities and detailed case studies in six local authorities in Britain. The key question addressed is whether tenant participation empowers tenants. The conclusion is that power is a very complex phenomenon which defies simple definition and analysis. Nevertheless some factors are identified, an awareness of which aids analysis of tenant participation and helps those involved both to make sense of it and to focus their attention on the factors which could determine their ability to achieve their objectives.
COMPULSORY COMPETITIVE TENDERING FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES: THE EXPERIENCES OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND 1988‐1992
Authors: SHAW KEITH , FENWICK JOHN , FOREMAN ANNE
Published: April 2007

This article examines the response of a sample of local authorities in the North of England to the introduction of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (Cm) following the 1988 Local Government Act. It analyses the Organizational implications of CCT and highlights how officers, councillors and trade union representatives viewed the changing nature of management within local authorities in the period following the award of the first service contracts. In particular, it examines the different reactions to the development of a more commercial approach to the management of services and ends by assessing the specific impact of CCT in the context of other important changes in local government.