The Parliamentary arithmetic shows that the Cameron-Clegg coalition is almost immune to rebellions – it will last five years

Most commentators in the press and from the Labour party have assumed that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government will be plagued by internal dissensions in the House of Commons. In fact, Patrick Dunleavy argues that the government can survive untouched until 84 right-wing Conservative MPs abstain, or 41 Liberal Democrats vote with the opposition – which should never happen. If the leaders and ministers can hold it together between themselves, this looks like a full-term government

With a likely cost of £4 billion, the Health and Social Care Bill has all the hallmarks of an avoidable policy fiasco

This week sees the release of a highly critical report from the cross-party Health Select Committee on the Health Minister, Andrew Lansley’s proposals to reorganise the NHS. The Committee’s Chairman, the former Health Secretary, Stephen Dorrell, said that the NHS should focus on achieving efficiencies rather than on management upheaval. Patrick Dunleavy argues that the proposed NHS reorganization will be a policy disaster for the government, which may end up costing up to £4billion – 1/5th of the amount needed to be saved by the NHS through efficiency gains

Book review: managing modernity: beyond bureaucracy? edited by Stewart Clegg et al

In this collection of essays Steward Clegg and co-authors envisage the end of bureaucracy, where big corporations and public sector organizations are open and free of constraints. Patrick Dunleavy is intrigued but not convinced, arguing that all forms of ‘beyondism’ and ‘post-x’ social theory are inherently dissatisfying. If the authors really knew what was happening now or next, they’d tell us – instead of assuring us only that it is ‘not x’

Electoral reform in local government: alternative systems and key issues

The Government plans a full modernisation of local government, including annual elections and a stronger scrutiny role for elected representatives. Such a programme must also consider reform options which improve the match between votes and seats, revitalise local electoral dynamics and strengthen links between councillors and constituents. This research, by Patrick Dunleavy and Helen Margetts, investigates a key possibility for such an agenda: changing the local electoral system. The researchers simulated local elections under five alternative electoral systems to first-past-the-post

Five minutes with Patrick Dunleavy and Chris Gilson: “Blogging is quite simply, one of the most important things that an academic should be doing right now”

Following this week’s the launch of EUROPP – an academic blog investigating matters of European Politics and Policy –Patrick Dunleavy and Chris Gilson (also the creators of this blog!) discuss social scientists’ obligation to spread their research to the wider world and how blogging can help academics break out of restrictive publishing loops

Hasty changes to the machinery of government can disrupt departments for up to two years

Prime Ministers who are new in government or who are facing difficulties, often reorganize Whitehall as a way of demonstrating impact. Yet Anne White and Patrick Dunleavy show that this approach often has substantial costs, which are particularly hard to bear in the current climate of budget austerity

Parliament bounces back – how Select Committees have become a power in the land

Much reformist discussion of the House of Commons views it as an institution in permanent decline, operating in a museum-building with stuffy and out-of-date processes that MPs stubbornly refuse to change. But Patrick Dunleavy and Dominic Muir show that the reforms pushed through in 2009-10 by Tony Wright have already made a dramatic difference. The media visibility of the Commons’ Select Committees has grown substantially, giving them unprecedented national (even global) attention

REF Advice Note 1: Understanding Hefce’s definition of Impact

English universities have begun spending millions of pounds and thousands of staff hours on preparing for the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. Some of these resources will be devoted to the 5,000 Impact Case Studies that will be used by the funding council (Hefce) to allocate a fifth of government research funding. In a new series the LSE Impacts project team presents free Advice Notes on how to prepare Impact Case Studies from start to finish, focusing on the social sciences and humanities

Brexit shows (again) why we must overhaul the way the Commons is elected

David Cameron’s announcement that he would step down as Prime Minister capped a night of unprecedented referendum triumph for the ‘Brexiteers’ on the Conservative right, and for UKIP in overthrowing Britain’s 43-year-old membership of the European Union. Patrick Dunleavy considers the lessons that Cameron learned too late to save his premiership, and concludes that the only long-term cure is to structurally reform the way Parliament is elected