Agencies, ministers and civil servants in Britain

Huge variations exist in the relationships between politicians and agenciesin Britain, from very frequent contact in a politicised atmosphere to thecomplete absence of a direct relationship at all. The nature of therelationship appears to be determined less by agency status as such as bythe political sensitivity of particular policy issues. While politicians are notinvolved in the day-to-day running of most agencies, they have beenconcerned with operational matters in a small number of agencies. Whilemany agencies have no direct input into policy issues (and there are fewdirectly concerning them), in a limited number of cases the agency is themain source of policy advice because it is the repository of expertise, andin others the agency has the right to be consulted about any policyproposals affecting them, and to make policy proposals. The British NextSteps agency form, because of it relatively informal status, is relativelyadaptable to new purposes. Thus, agency status as such has provided littlehindrance to the new Labour government. Similarly, while agencies wereoriginally set up and largely operate with a vertical perspective on meetingtheir own targets, the form is adaptable to cross-organisational targets,though it cannot solve conflicting objectives or policies

The politics of industrial change: government involvement in the U.K. shipbuilding industry 1959-73

This study uses a policy analysis approach to examine the development of government policy towards the UK shipbuilding industry in the period 1959-73 as a case study of government involvement in an industry undergoing change. The focus is primarily at the UK level and policy towards individual yards is considered within this national context. In addition to examining the formulation of policies, the study analyses the political aspects of implementing them. After describing the main influences on the industry and outlining government policy before 1959, the study discusses in detail the development of government policy between 1959 to 1973. A short chapter describes subsequent developments up to the introduction of legislation to nationalise the industry. The role of information in the policy process relevant to shipbuilding and the institutional framework of government policy are analysed in detail. The concluding chapter discusses the effect of shipbuilding policy on relationships between government and industry, the extent to which governments can make an industry competitive, the relevance of models of policy making and the general implications of the study for government involvement in industrial change

Towards an Economy of Higher Education

This paper draws a distinction between ways thinking and acting, and hence of policy and practice in higher education, in terms of different kinds of economy: economies of exchange and economies of excess. Crucial features of economies of exchange are outlined and their presence in prevailing conceptions of teaching and learning is illustrated. These are contrasted with other possible forms of practice, which in turn bring to light the nature of an economy of excess. In more philosophical terms, and to expand on the picture, economies of excess are elaborated with reference, first, to the understanding of alterity in the work of Emmanuel Levinas and, second, to the idea of Dionysian intensity that is to be found in Nietzsche. In the light of critical comment on some current directions in policy and practice, the implications of these ways of thinking for the administrator, the teacher and the student in higher education are explored

Fighting fires in testing times: exploring a staged response hypothesis for blame management in two exam fiasco cases

This paper tests a 'staged-response' hypothesis about the blame management strategies of public officeholders facing blame firestorms in the media after serious failures in the public-exam system for school-leavers in Scotland in 2000 and England in 2002. The authors develop a method for systematic analysis and comparison of the behaviour of officeholders confronted with such firestorms and construct time series intervention models to estimate the impact of strategies upon the next day's blame level. The findings do not fit the hypothesis precisely, but are consistent with the underlying thrust of theories of blame avoidance. The findings also raise questions over claims about the effectiveness of presentational strategies for managing blame, the idea that administrative delegation can protect ministers in parliamentary systems when being criticized for operational failures, and that the appointment of inquiries is used to put tricky issues into the political 'long grass'

Exam howlers or accidents waiting to happen?

The presentation compares the regulatory implications of two highly politically salient exam-marking crises in the context of formal ministerial accountability to parliaments, blame-shifting, and 'alphabet soups' of bodies varying in formal status from government department, non-ministerial department, executive agency, statutory non-departmental public body, 'advisory' committees carrying out executive functions, and a range of nominally private bodies, some of which are carrying out 'public' functions. Among the issues introduced are monitoring and regulation in the context of (flawed) change management and separation of regulatory functions from others such as curriculum development and exam-setting and marking