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Leadership in Whitehall
An entertaining and authoritative study of leadership in the British civil service from one of the top authors in the field. Kevin Theakston draws the lessons of how change in central government can be managed and implemented from a series of biographical studies of the acknowledged leaders in the civil service in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - from Charles Trevelyan, the founder of the modern civil service, to modern Mandarins such as Robert Armstrong and Margaret Thatcher's personal adviser the outsider Sir Derek Rayner. The case studies are linked to the wider themes of leadership and administrative culture in Whitehall, illustrating the patterns of change and continuity over time. This highly readable and innovative study will appeal to students of British politics and government, public administration, public policy, political history and comparative politics as well as policymakers, civil servants and others interested in the policymaking and governing process.
After Number 10
Having lost an election, been thrown out by their party, or retired on grounds of ill-health, what do former British prime ministers do? In the first book to look at the lives, political roles and influence of former prime ministers, Theakston analyzes all the former prime ministers from Walpole in the 18th century to Blair today.
The Civil Service Since 1945
This book provides a succinct overview of the development of the civil service since the Second World War. Adopting a broad, historical approach, it assesses the changes in organization, structure and management of the Whitehall machine, alongside the continuities in the policy and practice of public administration. Kevin Theakston draws on the full range of recent scholarship, documents in the Public Record Office, and the many postwar offical investigations and reports to provide a balanced analysis of the key themes and issues. The book will be welcomed by all interested in the development of public policy and administrations, and post-war British politics in general.
William Armstrong and British Policy Making
This book offers a detailed account of the life and career of William Armstrong, the most influential civil servant in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, and one of the most powerful and significant Whitehall officials in the post-1945 period. He was at the centre of the British government policy-making machine for over 30 years – the very incarnation of the ‘permanent government’ of the country. He was the indispensable figure at the right hand of successive Chancellors of the Exchequer, and a reforming Head of the Civil Service. His role and power was such that he was controversially dubbed ‘deputy prime minister’ under Edward Heath. The book also casts light on wider institutional, political and historical issues around the working and reform of the civil service and the government machine, the policy-making process, and the experience in office of Labour and Conservative governments from the 1940s to the 1970s. ;;;;;;;;;;;
Disjunctive Prime Ministerial Leadership in British Politics
This book illustrates the cyclical pattern in the kinds of dilemmas that confront political leaders and, in particular, disjunctive political leaders affiliated with vulnerable political regimes. The volume covers three major episodes in disjunction: the interwar crisis between 1923 and 1940, afflicting Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald and Neville Chamberlain; the collapse of Keynesian welfarism between 1970 and 1979, dealt with by Edward Heath, Harold Wilson and James Callaghan; and the ongoing crisis of neoliberalism beginning in 2008, affecting Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May. Based on this series of case studies of disjunctive prime ministers, the authors conclude that effective disjunctive leadership is premised on judicious use of the prime ministerial toolkit in terms of deciding whether, when and where to act, effective diagnostic and choice framing, and the ability to manage both crises and regimes.
The Labour Party and Whitehall
First published in 1992. In this lively and controversial book, Kevin Theakston examines the Yes, Minister-style argument popularised by Tony Benn and Richard Crossman that the civil service obstructs Labour government policies. He argues that in fact the Labour party’s problems and failures in office are largely political in origin. The book surveys the development of socialist thinking about Whitehall, and examines the claim of a Labour MP in 1979 that ‘It is as if Labour in office has now lost all stomach for administrative reform.’ Theakston looks at the effectiveness of Labour’s various reform schemes, raising important issues such as politicisation and power in the civil service, Whitehall management, elitism in civil service recruitment, and secrecy and ‘open government’. This book will appeal to researchers and students of British politics, public administration, and history, as well as to all those with an interest in Whitehall reform, or in Labour Party politics.
New Labour's Foreign Policy
On 12 May 1997, the foreign secretary, Robin Cook, launched a mission statement for New Labour's foreign policy. This essay asks whether New Labour have re-orientated the path of foreign policy from that established by the Conservatives.
The British Constitution
In the latter part of the nineteenth century Walter Bagehot wrote a classic account of the British constitution as it had developed during Queen Victoria's reign. He argued that the late Victorian constitution was not at all what people thought it was. Anthony King argues that the same is true at the beginning of this century. Most people are aware that major constitutional changes have taken place, but few recognize that their cumulative effect has been to change entirely the nature of Britain's constitutional structure. The old constitution has gone. The author insists that the new constitution is a mess, but one that we can make the best of. The British Constitution is neither a reference...
Losing Political Office
Based on in-depth interviews conducted with British politicians, this book analyses the different impacts of leaving political office. Representative democracy depends on politicians exiting office, and yet while there is considerable interest in who stands for and gains office, there is curiously little discussed about this process. Jane Roberts seeks to address this gap by asking: What is the experience like? What happens to politicians as they make the transition from office? What is the impact on their partners and family? Does it matter to anyone other than those immediately affected? Are there any wider implications for our democratic system? This book will appeal to academics in the fields of leadership, political science, public management and administration and psychology. It will also be of interest to elected politicians in central, devolved and local government (current and former), policy makers and political commentators, and more widely, the interested general reader.
How Labour Governments Fall
What similarities exist between the reasons for Labour losing office in 2010 and those behind why previous Labour governments were defeated? This edited volume provides a detailed historical appraisal which considers the importance of themes such as economic performance; political leadership and the condition of the Conservatives in opposition.
