Managerial bureaucracy continuity and change in the history of the British civil service: 1979-2007
Creators: name: Castellani, Lorenzo
Publisher: name: IMT Alti Studi Lucca
Year: 2016
Subjects: JA Political science (General)

description: The thesis provides a detailed historical analysis of the British Civil
 Service reforms in the period 1979-2007 using archive, public and legal
 sources. The work focuses on organisational changes and the
 managerialisation process that crossed three different premierships and
 parties in government. All these thirty years of administrative reforms
 involved many common profiles to take into account objectives,
 resources and management information, better policy-making,
 openness to outside thinking and people, role, structure and better
 capacity of the centre of government, size, structures and functions of
 the Civil Service. Continuities with the past and within reforms are not
 neglected considering the relationship between modernisation and
 tradition that included values, principles and embedded practices that
 resisted change and accompanied an incremental process of change. On
 the one hand, the impact of the New Public Management doctrine
 developed by international scholars and policymakers by the eighties is
 taken into account; on the other hand, the 'constitutional' characteristics
 of an ancient, professional and centralised bureaucratic model such as
 the Civil Service are not underestimated by this historical work. The
 analysis is historical, considering key events, reforms, personalities and
 debate that involved the civil service during this period, but even
 legally and politically grounded. It considers the historical background
 of the Thatcher era, when the government of the Iron Lady set up a
 new season of reforms for the bureaucracy of the central government
 based on managerial principles, budget disciplines and the need to cut
 waste, spending and manpower. The Thatcher period (1979-1990) was
 characterized by three phases of reform: departmental scrutinies led by
 Derek Rayner and the Efficiency Unit (1979-1983); Lasting Reforms,
 involving the launch of programmes such as MINIS and FMI, which
 aimed to improve information management and offer better value for
 money in government (1982-1987); and the Next Steps Agencies (1987-1990), which were the most important structural reforms of the last
 three decades. The Civil Service moved from being a unitary
 bureaucracy to being a federalized one in which managerial principles
 and performance measurement could be developed and implemented.
 By 1990, the Major government had focused more on customer service,
 with initiatives such as the Citizen's Charter (1991) and Competing for
 Quality (1994). Meanwhile, the Next Steps reform was completed and
 contracting-out and competition policy for public services was
 enforced. Traditional values, legal framework and principles continued
 to be reaffirmed by many governmental initiatives and papers. In 1997,
 when New Labour and Tony Blair arrived at Downing Street, the appetite for administrative reforms remained. Continuity with the past
 is highlighted as well as changes at both organisational and policy
 levels. The most important innovations such as Public Service
 Agreements, performance measurement, developing of delivery
 control, capability reviews, the proliferation of units to achieve more
 coordination and tackle social issues, the rise of special advisers and
 transparency in Government are investigated. Moreover, legal updates
 such as Ministerial Code, Civil Service Code and Special Advisers
 regulations are analysed. In the last chapters, crucial issues such as
 constitutional and legal developments, performance measurement,
 special advisers, ministerial responsibility and resilience of tradition are
 assessed. In the conclusion, the new traits of managerial bureaucracy as
 a result of historical facts and reform process are drawn.