The public service ethos and the role of the British Civil Service

West European Politics

Volumn 23, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 45-66

  Richards, David ^a   Smith, Martin J ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM; CIVIL SERVICE; POLITICAL SYSTEM; PUBLIC SERVICE;

UNITED KINGDOM;

EID: 0033869753     PISSN: 01402382     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01402380008425383     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. M. Weber, Methodology of the Social Sciences (New York: Free Press 1949);
2. A. Brecht, Political Theory (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1959);
3. J.-E. Lane, The Public Sector: Concepts Models and Approaches (London: Sage 1993).
4. R. Chapman, 'Problems of Ethics in Public Service Management', Public Money and Management 18 (1998), p.9.
5. See Public Money and Management, 18 (1998);
6. House of Lords, Select Committee on Public Services, Special Report, HL 68 (London: HMSO 1996-97).
7. See J. Hoskyns, 'Whitehall and Westminster: An Outsider's View', Parliamentary Affairs 36 (1983), pp. 137-47;
8. C. Foster and C. Plowden, The Stale Under Stress (Milton Keynes: Open University Press 1996);
9. A. Adonis and T. Hames (eds.), A Conservative Revolution? The Thatcher-Regan Decade in Perspective (Manchester: Manchester University Press 1994).
10. K. Dowding, The Civil Sen-ice (London: Routledge 1995).
11. T. Honderich, Conservatism (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1990);
12. M. Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics (London: Methuen 1962).
13. For a discussion of this view see Foster and Plowden, The State Under Stress.
14. In this context, we use the word 'project' rather hesitantly, as it provides a degree of coherence to a process which, more often than not, proved to be piecemeal and pragmatic, rather than based on a clearly defined and articulated blueprint for reform.
15. See R.A.W. Rhodes Understanding Governance: Policy Nehvorks, Governance, Reflexivity and Accountability (Buckingham: Open University Press 1997);
16. and N. Flynn and F. Strehl (eds.), Public Sector Management in Europe (London: Prentice Hall 1996).
17. See P. Hennessy, Whitehall (London: Fontana 1989);
18. Foster and Plowden The State Under Stress;
19. D. Richards, The Civil Service Under the Consen-atives 1979-97: Whitehall's Political Poodles? (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press 1997).
20. R. Armstrong, 'Minutes of Evidence, 12 November 1996', House of Lards Select Committee on the Public Sen-ice Session 1996-97 (London: HMSO 1997), p.7.
21. B. O'Toole, T.H. Green and the Ethics of Senior Officials in British Central Government', Public Administration 68 (1990), pp.43-61;
22. T.H. Green, Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation (London: Longmans 1879) and Prologemena to Ethics (New York: Cromwell 1883).
23. A. Massey, Managing the Public Sector: A Comparative Analysis of the United Kingdom and the United States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1993) p.36.
24. See M.J. Smith, The Core Executive in Britain (Basingstoke: Macmillan 1999).
25. See M.J. Smith and D. Richards, 'Ideological Ministers and Civil Servants: The Case of Tony Benn' (mimeo, University of Sheffield).
26. For details of the event, see T. Benn, Against the Tide: Diaries 1973-76 (London: Arrow 1989), pp.236-99.
27. See L. Pratchett, The Public Service Ethos in Local Government: A Research Report (London: ICSA 1994);
28. L. Wrigley and D. McKevitt, 'Professional Ethics, Government Information and Differential Information', in D. McKevitt and A. Lawton (eds.), Public Sector Management: Theory, Critique and Practice (London: Sage 1994)
29. R. Sheaf and M. West, 'Marketisation, Managers and Moral Strain: Chairmen, Directors and Public Sector Ethos in the National Health Service', Public Administration 75 (1997), pp.189-206.
30. See B. O'Tbole, 'The Concept of Public Duty', in P. Barberis (ed.), The Civil Sen-ice in an Era of Change (Aldershot: Dartmouth 1995);
31. B. O'Toole, 'Ethics in Government', Parliamentary Affairs 50 (1997), pp. 130-42.
32. See M. Weiner, English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit 1850-1980 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1981).
33. E. Mellon, 'Managerial Values: Executives in Transition' (Paper presented at ESRC Whitehall Conference Understanding Central Government: Theory and Practice, University . of Birmingham, Birmingham, September 1996), p.14.
34. Interview with ex-Deputy Secretary in the Department of Trade and Industry. As part of a wider project on change in Whitehall we have conducted 160 interviews with serving and retired officials and ex-Secretaries of State. We interviewed most grades 1 and 2 in the Departments of Trade, Industry, Energy, Social Security and the Home Office as well as the majority of Secretaries of State between 1974 and 1997. We also interviewed a sample of officials in grades 3-7. The interviews were conducted between October 1996 and September 1998. They were semi-structured, lasting between one and one and a half hours. All interviews were recorded. The interviews with officials were on a non-attributable basis. Interviews with ministers were attributable, unless the interviewee stated otherwise.
35. Armstrong, Minutes of Evidence, p.7.
36. R. Scott, Report of the Inquiry into the Export of Defence Equipment and Dual Use Goods to Iraq and Related Prosecutions (London: HMSO 1996), p.201.
37. Ibid., p.1195.
38. See M. Frankel, 'No More Secrets Please', Independent on Sunday, 26 July 1998;
39. David Hencke, 'Government Stalls on Information Bill', The Guardian, 7 Aug. 1998;
40. M. Frankel, 'Secrets and Lies', The Guardian, 18 Aug. 1998.
41. Interview conducted with Derek Lewis by Matthew Flinders.
42. Interview with Michael Howard.
43. Richards, The Civil Sen-ice Under the Consen-atives 1979-97, pp.243-51.
44. See V. Bogdanor, "The Politics of Power', The Guardian, 4 June 1997;
45. R. Norton-Taylor, 'I Know how Sir Humphrey Talks', The Guardian, 14 July 1997.
46. O'Toole, The Concept of Public Duty and Ethics in Government.
47. C. Ponting, 'Memorandum: Treasury and Civil Service Committee', Ministers and Civil Sen-ants: Duties and Responsibilities, Vol. 11: Minutes-of Evidence HC 92-11 (London: HMSO 1995), p.104.
48. Interview with ex-Deputy Secretary, Department of Industry.
49. Interview with ex-Permanent Secretary, Home Office.
50. Interview with ex-Deputy Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry.
51. Interview with ex-DTI official.
52. Interview with DSS official.
53. Interview with Grade 2, Home Office.
54. Interview with ex-Permanent Secretary, DTI.
55. M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish: Birth of the Prison (New York: Random House 1977), pp.27-8.
56. Interview with ex-Deputy Secretary, Department of Industry.
57. Interview with ex-Permanent Secretary, DTI.
58. See D. Beetham, Bureaucracy (Buckingham: Open University Press 1996, 2nd edn.).
59. On issues of accountability see M. Flinders, Forms of Accountability (Sheffield: University of Sheffield 1997).
60. R. Chapman, Ethics in the British Civil Sen-ice (London: Routledge 1988).
61. See A. Barker and G. Wilson, 'Whitehall's Disobedient Servants? Senior Officials' Potential Resistance to Ministers in British Government Departments', British Journal of Political Science 27 (1997), pp.223-16.
62. Chapman, Ethics in the British Civil Service, p.305.
63. Quoted in ibid., p.306.
64. See B. Jessop, Traditionalism Conservatism and British Political Culture (London: Alien and Unwin 1974);
65. A. King, 'Overload: Problems of Governing in the 1970s', Political Studies 23 (1975), pp.289-96;
66. S. Beer, Britain Against Itself (London: Faber 1982).
67. See R. Crossman, Inside View (London: Jonathan Cape 1972);
68. B. Castle, The Castle Diaries 1964-70 (London: Weidenfeld 1984);
69. T. Benn, Arguments for Democracy (London: Jonathan Cape 1980).
70. See T. Balogh, "The Apotheosis of the Dilettante: The Establishment of Mandarins', in H. Thomas (ed.), The Establishment: A Symposium (London: Anthony Blond 1959);
71. A. Sampson, Anatomy of Britain (London: Hodderand Stoughton 1962); Hennessy, Whitehall.
72. For a full account, see P. Kellner and N. Crowther Hunt, The Civil Service: An Enquiry into Britain's Ruling Class (London: Macdonald 1980); Hennessy, White/tall; G. Fry, Reforming the Civil Sen-ice: The Fulton Committee in the British Home Civil Service 1966-68 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 1993). For further details on Whitehall's reaction to Fulton, see G. Drewry and G. Butler, The Civil Sen-ice Today (Oxford: Blackwell 1991, 2nd edn.); Richards, The Civil Sen-ice under the Consen-atives; K. Theakston, Leadership in Whitehall (London: Macmillan 1999).
73. Richards, The Civil Sen-ice under the Consen-atives, p. 116.
74. G. Fry, Policy and Management in the British Civil Sen-ice (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf 1995), p.38.
75. M. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (London: Harper Collins 1993), p.ll.
76. See Fry, Policy and Management in the British Civil Sen-ice.
77. I. Gilmour, Dancing with Dogma (London: Simon and Schuster 1992), p.227.
78. The Times, The Times Guide to the House of Commons (London, Times Books 1979), pp.282-94.
79. See C. Campbell and G. Wilson, 77ie End of Whitehall: Death of a Paradigm (Oxford: Blackwell 1995);
80. Fry, Policy and Management in the British Civil Sen-ice;
81. K. Theakston, The Civil Sen-ice since 1945 (Oxford: Blackwell 1995);
82. Foster and Plowden, The State Under Stress;
83. Richards, The Civil Sen-ice under the Consen-atives.
84. OToole, 'The Concept of Public Duty', p.91.
85. See OToole, 'T.H. Green and the Ethics of Senior Officials in British Central Government'.
86. Ibid.
87. See Richards, The Civil Sen-ice under the Consen-atives.
88. Ibid., p. 177.
89. Interview with Permanent Secretary.
90. Interview with Kenneth Baker.
91. Interview with Lord Carrington
92. Interview with Douglas Hurd.
93. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p. 18.
94. Mountfield, "The British Public Management Reform Experience'.
95. See Campbell and Wilson, The End of Whitehall; Theakston, The Civil Sen-ice Since 1945;
96. P. Barberis The Elite of the Elite (Aldershot: Dartmouth 1996);
97. Foster and Plowden The State Under Stress; Smith, The Core Executive.
98. See Foster and Plowden, The Slate Under Stress.
99. M.J. Smith, 'Reforming the State', in S. Ludlam and M.J. Smith (eds.), Contemporary British Consen-atism, (London: Macmillan 1996).
100. See Richards, The Civil Sen-ice under the Consen-atives.
101. See Hoskyns, 'Whitehall and Westminster: An Outsider's View'.