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Everyday Life in British Government
By (author)
R. A. W. Rhodes
Genres:
Constitution: government & the state, Political leaders & leadership, Public administration, Political structure & processes
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Synopsis
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. New & Used
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What Reviewers Are Saying
Beyond these observations, and for the reasons already mentioned, the book makes an original contribution, it is rigorous and highly stimulating for those interested in governance practices and shaping of its elites, even outside Britain. * Mariana Heredia, Luisina Perelmiter, Perfiles Latinoamericanos 41 * One of the best books I have ever read about how the public service works. * Fran Thorn, President of the Institute of Public Administration, Australia * Rhodes skilfully paints a lucid picture of how beliefs and practices create meaning in politics, policy-making, and public service delivery. The reader is left with a firm impression of a story-telling political administrative elite that uses willed-ordinariness, underpinned by routines, rituals, protocols, and language, to domesticate the rude surprises that punctuate everyday government. * Alistair Davey, Public Administration * Some will read this fine and engaging book for its sharp observation of ministers and their private offices at work. Others will value it as a detailed and methodologically explicit example of the value of observation as part of the political scholars tool-kit: indeed, it is an excellent case study in using ones research as a showcase or ones ontology and epistemology (in this case, an interpretivist position which emphasises the interaction of narratives and
practices). * Andrew Connell, Political Studies Review * Rhodes' writing is personal, assertive, challenging, informed and always interesting. * Evert A. Lindquist, Canadian Public Administration * Everyday Life in British Government by R.A.W. Rhodes, one of Britains foremost executive scholars, is both an important and a very personal book. This rare combination flows not just from the authors truly passionate interest in his subjects but also, and more importantly, from the particular methodological approach to studying British government ministers and civil servants used in this book. * Ludger Helms, Innsbruck * One of the "must have" books on politics for 2011... a fascinating and surprisingly readable and entertaining book. Politicians and bureaucrats, believe it or not, are just like us - well maybe not quite. They swear, make mistakes, and bitch and gossip about each other and their enemies (usually the Treasury)... a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the Whitehall. * Dr Steve Coulter, LSE blog *
practices). * Andrew Connell, Political Studies Review * Rhodes' writing is personal, assertive, challenging,