Changing Patterns of Governance in the United Kingdom Reinventing Whitehall?

by Marsh, David; Richards, David; Smith, Martin J.

• ISBN13: 9780333792896
• ISBN10: 0333792890
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-14
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This is the first comprehensive examination of the changing relations between ministers and civil servants in the UK since 1979. Drawing on evidence compiled from more than 150 interviews, this book provides unprecedented insight into the world of Conservative government. The authors also examine the external pressures exerted by factors such as the European Union, and they conclude by arguing that, despite recent claims about the end of the Whitehall model, many of the old features of the British system remain.

Author Biography

David Marsh is Professor of Politics at the University of Birmingham and the author of Comparing Policy Networks. David Richards is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Liverpool and the author of The Civil Service Under the Conservatives. Martin J. Smith is Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield and the author of The Core Executive in Britain.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
R. A. W. Rhodes
Acknowledgements	xii
Introduction	1	(13)
Culture and Power in Whitehall	14	(29)
Structural Change in Central Government	43	(26)
Departmental Cultures	69	(32)
Departments and the Core Executive	101	(31)
Reassessing the Role of Departmental Cabinet Ministers	132	(23)
The Changing Relations between Ministers and Civil Servants	155	(26)
The Departments' Relations Outside the Core Executive	181	(28)
The Role of Europe	209	(23)
Assessing the Differentiated Polity Model: towards an Asymmetric Power Model	232	(19)
Appendix on Methods	251	(3)
Bibliography	254	(14)
Index	268