Routledge Library Editions: The Labour Movement
1 primary work
Book 38
In this controversial work, Kevin Theakston examines the "Yes Minister"-style accounts of civil service obstruction to Labour government policies popularized by Tony Benn and Richard Crossman. He argues that in fact Labour's problems and failures in office are largely political in origin. He also 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 politicization and power in the civil service, Whitehall management, elitism in civil service recruitment, and secrecy and "open government". The book will appeal to researchers and students of British politics and public administration, and to all those with an interest in Whitehall reform, or in Labour Party politics.