Interpreting British governance

Abstract:

How are we governed in Britain? Cynics might reply 'badly', others might say 'too much' - both would be comments on the quality or quantity. This work combines the skills of a political theorist and intellectual historian with those of a student of British government and administration to discover the 'how' or, in the authors' words, 'the meaning of it'.

The work is organised in three parts. Part one sets out the background processes at work defining the authors' interpretive approach, their epistemology and governance. Part two explores the concepts of tradition and dilemma to reanalyse critically public sector reform as enacted by politicians such as the Thatcher and Major marketisation reforms. The third part explores the role of civil servants and their response to the reforms, and uses history to explain why they did so and in the ways they did. The essential argument of the writers is that there is no necessary or given pattern of governance but only the constructions of various traditions.

The book will interest students and researchers of British government, public administration and political science methods.

Mark Bevir is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley.

R.A.W. Rhodes is Professor of Political Science at the Research School of Social Science, Australian National University, Canberra.