New Labour and the civil service : reconstituting the Westminster model / David Richards.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Richards, David, 1968-

Series:

Transforming government (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))

Transforming government

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civil service--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Civil service.

Civil service--Great Britain--History--21st century.

History.

Great Britain--Politics and government--1997-2007.

Great Britain.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xii, 272 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Summary:

This is the first comprehensive examination of the Labour Administration's approach to the Civil Service. Based on an original account of power relations between the Government. Whitehall and the wider policymaking arena, and drawing on evidence compiled from over three hundred interviews by the author, it provides a unique insight into the approach to governing of the Labour Administration. It explores a variety of themes: the influence of Third Way thinking on Labour's approach to governing; the 1997 transition process; the extent to which Whitehall has been politicised; and the effectiveness of Labour's reforms in improving policy delivery. The book concludes by arguing that claims about the end of the Westminster model and the emergence of a differentiated polity should be treated with caution. Richards demonstrates that Labour's reforms can be understood as an attempt to reconstitute the Westminster Model and sustain the asymmetric position of the core executive in the policy-making arena.

Contents:

2 Labour and the Civil Service: Governing in the Shadow of the Westminster Model 12

3 Theorising Whitehall: Labour's Response to the Conservative Inheritance 31

4 Transition in Government 57

5 Labour and the Civil Service: From Managerialism to a Reconstituted Westminster Model 95

6 The Core Executive under Labour: Politicising Whitehall? 141

7 Conclusion: Labour and the Civil Service - Reconstituting the Westminster Model 196.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-260) and index.

ISBN:

9781403993809

1403993807

OCLC:

170037870