Politics and Policy Making in the UK / Paul Cairney and Sean Kippin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cairney, Paul, 1973- author.

Kippin, Sean, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Policy sciences.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (441 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Bristol, England : Bristol University Press, [2024]

Summary:

Written by leading voices in UK public policy and politics, this text examines the shifting UK political and policy landscape while also highlighting the features of politics that have endured. The book equips students with a robust understanding of public policy and enables them to locate this within a broader theoretical framework.

Contents:

Front Cover

Half-title

Series page

Politics and Policy Making in the UK

Copyright information

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Tables and Boxes

About the Authors

Acknowledgements

Preface: How to Analyse UK Policy Making

No One Is in Control or Knows What They Are Doing

Further Resources

1 Introducing UK Politics and Policy Making

The purpose and approach of this book

Comparing explanations of UK policy making

The Westminster model: a story of how policy should be made

Complex government: a story of how policy is actually made

Complex government and wicked problems

Bringing both stories together

The approach of the book

The structure of the book

Case studies in politics and policy making: responding to crisis?

2 Perspectives on Policy and Policy Making

Introduction: The importance of many perspectives

Policy analysis: a five-step guide (and its limits)

1. Define a policy problem

2. Identify feasible solutions

3. Use value-based criteria and political goals to compare solutions

4. Predict the outcome of each feasible solution

5. Make a recommendation to your client

What do policy analysts actually do?

Stages as functional requirements, not part of a cycle

Policy studies: the ideal-type policy process

Policy studies: how is policy really made?

How could policy makers respond to bounded rationality?

Punctuated equilibrium theory (and policy communities)

Power and ideas

Multiple streams analysis

Institutions and new institutionalism

Social construction and policy design

Advocacy coalition framework

Narrative policy framework

Policy learning

A simple representation of the policy-making environment

Critical policy analysis: challenging how policy is made

Stone's policy paradox.

Bacchi's What's the Problem Represented to Be?

Policy analysis for marginalised groups

Decolonising research

Critical race theory

The implications for policy analysis and policy studies

Who should be involved in policy analysis and policy making?

The perils of focusing on heroic individuals

Challenging the status quo: should policy making be pragmatic and incremental?

Bringing these three perspectives together

Conclusion

3 Explaining UK Politics and Policy Making

Introduction: Two ways to understand policy making in the UK

The Westminster model: a story of centralised power and control

Disenchantment and the Westminster model

Politics is too far removed from 'the people'

The political class does not represent the public

Politicians take power but not responsibility

Complex government: a story of limited central control

The pragmatic case for delegating policy attention

The normative case for delegating key functions of government

The multi-level nature of policy and policy making

The fragmented nature of policy making

Policy inheritance and the complexity of the statute book

How have policy makers responded to complex government?

What happens when these two stories collide?

The pragmatic response to complex government

Centralisation versus pragmatism

The enduring effect of the Westminster model of accountability

Policy-making studies: examining key actors and their environments

Explaining the impact of key actors: ministers and the core executive

Explaining the impact of key actors: parliaments

4 The Transformation of the UK State

Introduction

What do we mean by UK state transformation?

Economic policy: from Keynesianism to neoliberalism?

The rise, fall and reinvention of Keynesianism.

1940s and 1950s: UK government policy changes consistent with Keynesian thought

1960s: making state intervention work by modifying a Keynesian approach

1970s: a series of crises

1979-1997: a rejection of Keynesianism?

1997 onwards: a mix of 'neoliberal' aims and 'new Keynesian' policies

Employment law reform and trade unions

Privatisation and new public management

Selling nationalised industries

The privatisation of housing

Charging for public services (including university tuition fees)

Using non-governmental organisations to deliver services

Reforming public services: quasi-markets in health and education

Reforming the National Health Service

Reforming education

Reforming the civil service, 'policy advisory systems' and delivery

Trends in spending and regulation: from state to personal responsibility?

The role of the state in relation to individual and family health and welfare policies

How did devolution influence state transformation?

Healthcare

Education

Local government

Social housing

Public expenditure

Reforming government

5 What Does State Transformation Tell Us about the UK Policy Process?

What was the UK policy style during state transformation?

Did Thatcherism signal the end of policy communities?

Do the early post-war communities resemble modern networks?

Did policy change incrementally or in radical bursts?

Punctuated equilibrium theory: policy change is a function of attention

Hall's paradigm shift in economic policy: major change follows failure

Rapid paradigm shifts in economic policy are rare and incomplete

State transformation: trial and error, not a grand plan

What is the impact of these changes on government? Did they foster a 'lean' or 'hollow' state?.

How did governments react to the impact of these reforms?

How did governments describe the impact of these reforms?

UK transformation: part of a global neoliberal trend?

6 Crises and Policy Making: The UK Response to COVID-19

Introduction: How did policy makers address an existential crisis?

Policy analysis: how to address the policy problem

Step 1: How could governments define COVID-19 as a policy problem?

1. The minimal intervention story

2. The maximal intervention story

Step 2: Identifying feasible solutions

Steps 3 and 4: Using values and goals to compare solutions and predicting the outcomes of solutions

What would a cost-benefit analysis look like?

Step 5: Making recommendations

How did the UK and devolved governments respond to COVID-19?

How did the UK government define the problem?

Did the devolved governments define the problem differently?

What policy solutions did the UK and devolved governments select?

Phase 1: Government advice and voluntary behaviour (until mid-March 2020)

Phase 2: A rapid shift to enforced lockdown (late March to mid-May 2020)

Phase 3: Partial lockdown release, 'circuit breakers' and intermittent lockdowns (May 2020 to spring 2022)

Reducing some restrictions on individual and business behaviour (May-October 2020)

Local or regional restrictions (summer to October 2020)

Reimposing temporary lockdowns or 'circuit breakers' (autumn 2020 to spring 2021)

Lockdown releases (from late March/early April 2021)

Phase 4: Living with COVID-19 (from March 2022)

What do these experiences tell us about Westminster and complex government stories?

Bounded rationality: understanding and defining the policy problem

Controlling the policy process and the outcomes of choices

Critical policy analysis: whose lives matter to policy makers?.

To what extent did UK COVID-19 policies address health inequalities?

Conclusion: Did COVID-19 change UK policy for good?

7 Constitutional Policy: Brexit

Introduction: Did the UK take back control?

Policy analysis: what exactly is the problem?

The Brexit referendum: a poor solution to an ill-defined political problem

The Brexit debate: a catch-all solution to too many problems

Analysing the vote for Brexit as a policy problem

Step 1: How could actors define the vote for Brexit as a policy problem?

Soft Brexit: remain a member of the economic, but not political, union

Hard Brexit: leave the economic union and seek a new trading agreement with the EU

No-Deal Brexit: go it alone, with no agreement possible

Hold a second referendum to check if people want this Brexit

Steps 3 and 4: Using values and goals to compare solutions, and predicting the outcomes of solutions

What forms of multi-level policy making are feasible (and fair)?

What was the actual consequence of Brexit on policy and policy making?

Critical policy analysis: who wins or loses from Brexit?

Conclusion: How does Brexit inform our Westminster and complex government stories?

8 Environmental Policy: Climate Change and Sustainability

Introduction: Climate change as the ultimate 'wicked' problem

Step 1: How could governments define climate change as a policy problem?

What exactly is UK environmental policy?

How did the UK and devolved governments respond to climate change?

How has the UK government defined the problem?.

What climate change commitments did UK governments introduce?.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-5292-2237-0