Published: 2018-03-15

Between Bureaucracy and quangocracy: A Few Words on the Reform of the Civil Service under the Thatcher Government

Krzysztof Koźmiński
Zeszyty Prawnicze
Section: Artykuły
https://doi.org/10.21697/zp.2017.17.3.03

Abstract

Summary
Tis article discusses selected components of the reform of Her Majesty’s Civil Service conducted by the Thatcher ministries (1979-1990). In recent years assessments of the Thatcher government have tended to focus chiefly on the Iron Lady’s foreign policy, her intellectual inspirations (neoliberalism or the New Right), her leadership qualities, the effects of privatisation and deregulation, and her anti-trade union campaign. Yet on the other hand some of the decisions made by the Conservative cabinets led by Margaret Thatcher and John Major are still giving rise to disputes and controversy, and these issues include poll tax, local government reform, and the reform of the civil service. The prevailing view is that the measures the Conservatives took on this last issue may be regarded as “a revolution in the Civil Service.” Thatcher was convinced that the civil service was overstaffed and inefcient. The Conservatives were critical of phenomena like patronage, bureaucracy, and a surfeit of administrative staff. Far-reaching changes were made, with the introduction of Lord Rayner’s Efficiency Unit, which reduced staff numbers by 171 thousand; the Next Steps Initiative; a “new civil service culture” which perceived British citizens as consumers; decentralisation and disaggregation; cuts in the paperwork; and competitiveness in the public sector.

Keywords:

public administration, the Civil Service, bureaucracy, the Conservative revolution, Tatcherism.

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Citation rules

Koźmiński, K. (2018). Between Bureaucracy and quangocracy: A Few Words on the Reform of the Civil Service under the Thatcher Government. Zeszyty Prawnicze, 17(3), 79–114. https://doi.org/10.21697/zp.2017.17.3.03

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