Everyday Life in British Government

Everyday Life in British Government
Author :
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Total Pages : 362
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780191619076
ISBN-13 : 0191619078
Rating : 4/5 (078 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Everyday Life in British Government by : R. A. W. Rhodes

Download or read book Everyday Life in British Government written by R. A. W. Rhodes and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-04-21 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As citizens, why do we care about the everyday life of ministers and civil servants? We care because the decisions of the great and the good affect all our lives, for good or ill. For all their personal, political, and policy failings and foibles, they make a difference. So, we want to know what ministers and bureaucrats do, why, and how. We are interested in their beliefs and practices. In his fascinating piece of political anthropology, Rod Rhodes uncovers exactly how the British political elite thinks and acts. Drawing on unprecedented access to ministers and senior civil servants in three government departments, he answers a simple question: 'what do they do?' On the basis of extensive fieldwork, supplemented by revealing interviews, he tries to capture the essence of their everyday life. He describes the ministers' and permanent secretaries' world through their own eyes, and explores how their beliefs and practices serve to create meaning in politics, policy making, and public-service delivery. He goes on to analyze how such beliefs and practices are embedded in traditions; in webs of protocols, rituals, and languages. The story he has to tell is dramatized through in-depth accounts of specific events to show ministers and civil servants 'in action'. He challenges the conventional constitutional, institutional, and managerial views of British governance. Instead, he describes a storytelling political-administrative elite, with beliefs and practices rooted in the Westminster model, which uses protocols and rituals to domesticate rude surprises and cope with recurrent dilemmas.


Everyday Life in British Government Related Books

Everyday Life in British Government
Language: en
Pages: 362
Authors: R. A. W. Rhodes
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-04-21 - Publisher: OUP Oxford

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As citizens, why do we care about the everyday life of ministers and civil servants? We care because the decisions of the great and the good affect all our live
Everyday Life in British Government
Language: en
Pages: 368
Authors: R. A. W. Rhodes
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-04-21 - Publisher: OUP Oxford

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As citizens, why do we care about the everyday life of ministers and civil servants? We care because the decisions of the great and the good affect all our live
China's New Confucianism
Language: en
Pages: 273
Authors: Daniel A. Bell
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-04-19 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What is it like to be a Westerner teaching political philosophy in an officially Marxist state? Why do Chinese sex workers sing karaoke with their customers? An
Dramas at Westminster
Language: en
Pages: 278
Authors: Marc Geddes
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-12-06 - Publisher: Manchester University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Based on unprecedented access to the UK Parliament, this book challenges how we understand and think about accountability between government and Parliament. Dra
How We Lived Then
Language: en
Pages: 626
Authors: Norman Longmate
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-01-26 - Publisher: Random House

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Although nearly 90% of the population of Great Britain remained civilians throughout the war, or for a large part of it, their story has so far largely gone unt