Week 9: Political Perspectives on
the Policy Process
The Role of the State
Overview
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Interpreting the state
Interpreting government
Interpreting governance
Understanding the changes in the British
state
• The Hollow State vs the Reconstituted
State
• Conclusions
Interpreting the State
• What do we ‘traditionally’ mean by the
term ‘the state’?
– A territorial entity?
– A ‘contract’?
– Regulator of relationships, conferring
legitimacy
– Monopoly exercise of coercion
– Inter-linked institutions
Interpreting Government
• Originally encapsulated in the ‘Westminster
Model’
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Parliamentary Sovereignty
Accountability through free and fair elections
Majority control over the executive
Strong cabinet government
Central government dominance
Doctrine of ministerial responsibility
Non-political civil servants
Interpreting Government
• Shift to ‘a differentiated polity model’ (Rhodes)
– Emphasis on governance rather than
government
– Power dependence and exchange relationships
– Policy networks
– A segmented executive
– Intergovernmental relations
– A hollowed out state.
– (See Richards & Smith, 2003: 6)
Interpreting Governance
• What does governance mean?
- …that government now has to operate in a
diverse, fragmented, complex and
decentralised environment’ (Dorey, 2005)
Context and Constraints for
Public Policy
• Problems with the British State – too
weak or too powerful?
– Disaggregation, hollowing out
– Governance not government
– Power resources limited – interdependence
– Essential need for negotiation
– Myth of Prime Ministerial-Presidentialism
But remember this hypothesis….
• “Policy can be initiated at both the macro
and the micro levels from within any part
of the political system, but the frequency
and importance of initiatives grow as one
moves from the periphery towards the
centre.”(Jones et al, 2004)
Core Executive Under Blair
• Brown-Blair axis crucial to
understanding
• Brown’s power at the Treasury –
personal and structural
• Blair – foreign affairs and Constitution
• Limited opposition in Cabinet
Some Themes for
Understanding Polity Shifts
1. Since 1945 UK has changed from unitary
state to differentiated polity.
2. Policy networks of resource-dependent
organisations are defining characteristic of
policy process (even within government)
3. Shift from strong executive to segmented
executive
4. British state is subject to more ‘hollowing
out’
(Rhodes, 1997 – Understanding Governance)
The Hollowed State?
• Rhodes (1997) argument is that central
government's authority, autonomy and
power has been reduced by being
dispersed upwards (to EU etc),
downwards (to agencies and quangos)
and outwards (through privatisation).
In more detail, hollowing can be
seen as a consequence of…..
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Globalisation
Europeanisation
Agencifcation
Establishment of task forces,
working groups, advisory groups
• Devolution
• Regionalisation
• Rise of regulatory state
Scepticism & ‘HOS’ thesis
• Core executive remains the dominant actor
(Richards & Smith, 2003, p.273)
• State has not been hollowed out but has been
‘reconstituted’
• “…throughout the process of reconstitution, the
core executive has had the capacity and
resources to adapt, in order to retain its
dominant position within the policy process”
• (Richards & Smith, 2003, p.274)
Asymmetric Power Model
• Key characteristics are:
– Society marked by structured inequality
– Tradition that ‘gov knows best’
– Asymmetries of power
– Exchange relationships between actors
– A strong, if segmented, executive
– Limited external constraints on executive
power
Conclusions
• Instead of a clear dividing line between what is the
state and what is not the state, there is a subtle
gradation running from government departments,
through to quangos, public-private partnerships and
private firms in some sort of contractual relationship
with the state.
• British politics and government have become more
complex, and can no longer be related almost
exclusively to the world of Westminster and
Whitehall but yet their power cannot be ignored.