Washington, Westminster and Whitehall

Washington, Westminster and Whitehall
Author: Walter Williams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 1988-10-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0521351855

A study of the so-called "British Disease" in which the author argues that only with wholesale modernization, managerial and analytic changes, can Britain hope to provide the institutional capacity to cope with its problems, which are those of deep social and economic decline.

Thatcher, Reagan, and Mulroney

Thatcher, Reagan, and Mulroney
Author: Donald J. Savoie
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2010-11-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0822974614

Savoie considers the war of reform waged by the leaders of these major industrial countries. Reagan declared that he had come to Washington to "drain the swamp" of bureaucracy, and set up the Grace Commission to investigate the operation of the U.S. government. Thatcher and Mulroney were equally committed to reform and initiated wide-ranging changes. By the end of the 1990s, the changes were dramatic. Many governments operations had been privatized in all three countries, and new management techniques had been introduced. In Great Britain, one observer judged that the changes were historically as important as the collapse of Keynesian economics. Is government now better in these countries, and was political leadership right in focusing on management of the bureaucracy as the villain? Savoie suggests that the reforms overlooked problems now urgently requiring attention and, at the same time, attempted to address non-existent problems. He combines theory and research based on sixty-two interviews, nearly all with members of the executive branch of the governments of Britain, Canada and the United States.

Re-mapping the Americas

Re-mapping the Americas
Author: W. Andy Knight
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317066758

Since the end of the Second World War the map of the Americas has changed dramatically. Not only were many former European colonies turned into sovereign states, there was also an ongoing process of region-making recognizable throughout the hemisphere and obvious through the establishment of several regional agreements. The emergence of political and economic regional integration blocs is a very timely topic analyzed by scholars in many disciplines worldwide. This book looks at remapping the recent trends in region-making throughout the Americas in a way that hasn’t been at the center of academic analyses so far. While examining these regionalisation tendencies with a historical background in mind, the authors also answer fundamental questions such as: What influences does globalization have on region-making, both on normative regionalism plans as well as on actual economic, political, cultural, military and social regionalization processes driven by state and non-state actors? What ideas or interests lead states in the Americas to cooperate or compete with one another and how is this power distributed? How do these regional agreements affect trade relations and have there been trade barriers set up to protect national economies? What agreements exist or have existed and how did they change with regard to contents and for what reason? The book informs academic as well as non-academic audiences about regional developments in the Americas, in particular those dating back to the last twenty years. Beyond the primary purpose of summarizing the hemisphere’s recent trends, the book also brings clarification in a detailed but easy to understand way about timely issues regarding the institutionalisation, or lack thereof, of the plethora of regional and sub-regional bodies that have emerged in this hemisphere over the past couple of decades.

Government

Government
Author: Donald J. Savoie
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2022-05-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0228013437

Citizens have lost trust in their institutions of public governance. In trying to fix the problem, presidents and prime ministers have misdiagnosed the patient, failing to recognize that government bureaucracies are inseparable from political institutions. As a result, career officials have become adroit at managing the blame game but much less so at embracing change. Donald Savoie looks to the United States, Great Britain, France, and Canada to assess two of the most important challenges confronting governments throughout the Western world: the concentration of political power and the changing role of government bureaucracy. The four countries have distinct institutions shaped by distinct histories, but what they have in common is a professional non-partisan civil service. When presidents and prime ministers decide to expand their personal authority, national institutions must adjust while bureaucracies grow to fill the gap, paradoxically further constricting government efficacy. The side effects are universal – political power is increasingly centralized; Parliament, Congress, and the National Assembly have been weakened; Cabinet has lost standing; political parties have been debased; and civil services have been knocked off their moorings. Reduced responsibility and increased transparency make civil servants slow to take risks and politicians quick to point fingers. Government astutely diagnoses the problem of declining trust in government: presidents and prime ministers have failed to see that efficacy in government is tied to well-performing institutions.

Economic Planning for the Peace

Economic Planning for the Peace
Author: Ernest Francis Penrose
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2015-12-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1400879701

If the end of war is not victory but peace, wartime plans for postwar peace assume importance beyond the war itself. This book shows how deeply the peace plans of World War II, beginning as early as 1941, were affected by political conditions, by wartime developments, and by personalities such as Roosevelt, Morgenthau, Keynes, Churchill, and Winant. It reveals how great successes were attained, saving Europe from immediate postwar disaster, while there were grievous errors which led to the crisis of 1947. Originally published in 1953. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Labour Party and Whitehall

The Labour Party and Whitehall
Author: Kevin Theakston
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2020-05-17
Genre:
ISBN: 9781138325852

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.

The Director

The Director
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 602
Release: 1989-04
Genre: Industrial management
ISBN:

The Pacific Region

The Pacific Region
Author: Peter Alexis Gourevitch
Publisher: Sage Publications (CA)
Total Pages: 216
Release: 1989
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Two main issues dominate the debates surrounding the Pacific region today: prosperity and peace. Why have parts of the Asian/Pacific side grown so quickly while other parts of the Pacific, much of Latin America, Africa and other areas have not? How have these changes altered the international system of security? Political and Social Science, offers an in-depth examination of these debates, as well as providing a better understanding of the changes taking place within the region and giving rise to new ways of integrating classic variables into arguments that permit deeper analysis.

Prime Ministers and the Media

Prime Ministers and the Media
Author: Colin Seymour-Ure
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0470751940

This book looks at the ways in which prime ministers manage and fail to manage their public communication. A timely examination of the ways in which prime ministers manage and fail to manage their public communication. Original in scope, covering political rumours, political cartoons and capital cities, in addition to more familiar topics. Sets contemporary analysis of Downing Street press secretaries, media barons and press conferences in fuller historical context than usual. Draws on public records, private papers and interviews by the author dating back to the 1960s.