Achieving accountable government
NHS democracy: some ideas
The NHS has an annual budget which exceeds that of some democratic countries, but its oversight and accountability mechanisms are outdated and insufficient. Here, Simon Burall and Anthony Zacharzewski make the case for a new focus on involvement and participation, which could help the NHS to overcome a set of daunting long-term challenges. Similar PostsNHS Citizen […]
The British prime minister has become more prime ministerial and less presidential
For forty years or more commentators have suggested that the British prime minister is becoming presidential. Whilst the recent coalition government has given some pause to that claim it shows little sign of permanently abating. Keith Dowding argues that this isn’t necessarily the case, and that recent developments may instead suggest that the office of the prime […]
The absence of an appropriate degree of regulation and accountability may compromise the appointment of advisers to ministers
James Caan, the social mobility policy tsar noted for urging parents to let their children stand on their own two feet, caused embarrassment for Nick Clegg when it emerged he employs his own daughters. This raised a wider concern about the appointment of business people and other ‘experts’ to advise ministers. Ruth Levitt and William […]
IPPR’s report on the civil service starts a useful debate, but needs a much more informed and critical examination
Dave Richards and Martin Smith find the recent IPPR report, which recommended how to improve the accountability and performance of the UK civil service, to be weak on several counts. Its key recommendation of greater political (ministerial) involvement in senior appointments would effectively undermine the independence that the report states should be balanced with responsiveness. It also does not actually review […]
Constant government reshuffles are bad for policy, government, and accountability
Ministerial reshuffles are part and parcel of British government. While prime ministers often find them attractive, David Cameron has resisted the temptation to chop and change too much, making a virtue out of stability but occasionally being criticised for his loyalty to underperforming or scandal-hit ministers. The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee has recommended that […]
Profumo 50 years on: The old establishment’s collapse has not increased participation
Wyn Grant looks back at the Profumo affair and suggests that it represented the beginning of the end for the old ‘establishment’. In the place of ‘club government’, a more rule bound regulatory state was created. However this transformation has been arguably incomplete, with politicians still being drawn from a narrow range of occupations and not being representative of […]
A wider debate on how Europe shapes British policy making is now needed
The UK’s forty-year relationship with the EU and its predecessors has seen a significant integration of EU policies into the UK’s institutional culture. Janice Morphet looks at how the UK has implemented EU legislation in recent decades, finding that there has been little public discussion of their potential implications. She argues that it may now be time […]
The Endgame: How might the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government finish?
As the partisan debates around legislation on gay marriage wend their convoluted way through the Commons this week, exposing once again huge fissures between Conservative MPs and activists on the one hand and the PM and leading government modernizers on the other, so speculation about the end of the coalition government and the date of […]
Book Review: Accounting for Ministers: Scandal and Survival in British Government 1945-2007
Accounting for Ministers uses the tools of modern political science to analyse the factors which determine the fortunes of Cabinet ministers. Utilising agency theory, it describes Cabinet government as a system of incentives for prime ministerial and parliamentary rule. Lord Wilson has reservations about the attempts to analyse the rich, complex, impossible lives of Ministers with the methods of […]
It remains to be seen whether Parliament is cut out for coalition
The long periods between 1945 and 1970, and 1979 to 2010 proved that the British political system is adept at producing stable one-party Government. Now though, this looks set to change, with long-term polling trends suggest that coalition could become the rule, rather than the exception. While the current Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has shown itself […]
Democratic Audit's core funding is provided by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Additional funding is provided by the London School of Economics.