The Civil Service (Theory and Practice in British Politics)

212 Pages·1995·1.245 MB·English

by  Keith Dowding

The Civil Service
Radical reform of the civil service during the 1980s and 1990s has broken
up the unified hierarchical structures, leaving a central core concerned
with making policies, and peripheral agencies for implementing them.
The Civil Service provides an up-to-date critical introduction to the
working of these bodies, combining descriptive history and theoretical
explanation, with an emphasis on public-choice theory.
The first part of the book concentrates on managerial issues. The
second part focuses on policy-making and the role of the civil service in
terms of theories about the modern state. Assessing the reforms in terms
of the public-choice and managerial theories which underpin them, Keith
Dowding uses budget-maximising and bureau-shaping models to predict
the directions we can expect reforms to take in the future, and what their
success might be.
Central to the argument in The Civil Service is an examination of the
term ‘efficiency’ in the context of the reforms. Comparing public choice
‘rent-seeking’ arguments with more traditional ‘pluralist’ accounts, the
book examines the constitutional role of the civil service and its part in
policy-making. This combination of the theories of bureaucracy with an
account of the modern-day civil service will be essential reading for
students of British politics and for civil servants themselves.
Keith Dowding is Lecturer in Public Choice and Public Policy at the
London School of Economics.
Theory and Practice in British Politics
Series editors: Desmond King, Jeremy Waldron, Alan Ware
This series bridges the gap between political institutions and political
theory as taught in introductory British politics courses. While teachers
and students agree that there are important connections between theory
and practice in British politics, few textbooks systematically explore these
connections. Each book in this series takes a major area or institution and
looks at the theoretical issues which it raises. Topics covered include the
police, Northern Ireland, Parliament, electoral systems, the law, cities,
central government and many more. No other textbook series offers both
a lively and clear introduction to key institutions and an understanding of
how theoretical issues arise in the concrete and practical context of
politics in Britain. These innovative texts will be essential reading for
teachers and beginning students alike.
Other titles in the series
The Law
Jeremy Waldron
Electoral Systems
Andrew Reeve and Alan Ware
The Civil Service
Keith Dowding
London and New York
First published 1995
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1995 Keith Dowding
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-99543-0 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-415-07567-X (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-07568-8 (pbk)
For Anne
Contents
List of figures ix
List of tables x
Preface xi
1 Introduction: the civil service and the state 1
The civil service 2
Models of the state 3
2 Hierarchy: Weber and the old model 7
Weber and bureaucracy 7
The bureau as a machine 11
Departments, ministers and civil servants 16
The Fulton Report 20
The civil service after Fulton 21
The structure of government 22
Organizing departments 26
Rationality and efficiency in the civil service 28
3 Efficiency: its meaning and its abuse 31
Introduction 31
Economic models of bureaucracy 31
External arguments for public sector growth 32
Efficiency and effectiveness 34
Rent-seeking 40
Niskanen’s equilibrium argument 42
Conclusions 49
vii
4 Budget-maximizing: evidence of and ending it 51
Introduction 51
Niskanen’s behavioural model 52
Evidence for budget-maximizing 54
The Thatcher reforms 62
The Next Steps 69
5 Bureau-shaping: the new model and the new manager 77
Introduction 77
The bureau-shaping model 79
Types of budget 81
New managerialism 89
Financial rectitude 96
Competition in the managerial market 98
Productive efficiency gains 100
Has Next Steps been successful? 102
6 Policy-making: civil servants in the crossfire 105
Introduction 105
The four models of the state 105
Policy networks 109
Decision-making 119
Pantouflage and the revolving door 122
7 European Union: new opportunities 125
Introduction 125
Organization of the EU 126
Whitehall’s response to the EC 132
The European secretariat 135
Conclusions 49
8 Accountability: myths and empirical evidence 149
Accountability in theory 149
viii
The Osmotherly protection 152
The Matrix Churchill affair 153
The ‘constitution’ and accountability 156
Sacrificial responsibility 159
Agencies and the separation of policy and administration 168
Conclusion 172
Notes 175
References 181
Index 191
Figures
2.1 Accountability relations in the new civil service 23
2.2 The hierarchy of a core department 29
3.1 Pareto moves 36
3.2 Different Pareto frontiers 36
3.3 Different aspects of efficiency on policy outcomes 39
3.4 The relationship between types of efficiency 40
3.5 Equilibrium in a market 44
3.6 Marginal cost and marginal revenue 46
3.7 A firm’s production in a competitive market 46
3.8 Monopoly production 47
3.9 Bureau production 47
4.1 The Beck Jørgensen model—reform processes 56
4.2 The Beck Jørgensen model—phases of reform 57
5.1 The relationship between different budgets 85
5.2 Effect of political changes on senior bureaucrat activities 87
7.1 Co-ordination of EU policies 133
7.2 Co-ordination of EU legislation 137