A report by a committee of peers said that the coalition government's plans for reforming the civil service must not undermine its impartiality. It expressed concern that proposals such as allowing ministers to select departmental permanent secretaries from a shortlist, and to directly appoint civil servants on fixed-term contracts, could risk undermining the impartiality of the civil service, threaten the principle that appointments were based on merit, and make it harder for officials to give honest advice to ministers.
Source: The Accountability of Civil Servants, 6th Report (Session 2012–13), HL 61, House of Lords Constitution Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Oral and written evidence | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Nov
A paper examined the relationship between economic and political conditions and support for democracy in developed countries. Support for democracy tended to be highest in countries with a high level of economic development: but income inequality mattered much more. Citizens from countries with relatively low levels of income inequality tended to be more likely than others to support democracy. Household income was positively related to support for democracy in most countries: but the effect was strongest if economic development was high and income inequality was low.
Source: Robert Andersen, Support for Democracy in Cross-National Perspective: The detrimental effect of economic inequality, Discussion Paper 47, GINI Project (European Commission)
Links: Paper
See also: Robert Andersen, 'Support for democracy in cross-national perspective: the detrimental effect of economic inequality', Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Volume 30 Issue 4
Date: 2012-Nov
The Prime Minister announced plans (subject to consultation) to place stricter conditions on judicial review applications in relation to government decisions. Applications would cost more, with less time put aside to to apply and fewer chances to appeal. He also announced the scrapping of equality impact assessments of new policy or legislation, calling them 'bureaucratic nonsense'. The Welsh Government said that it would continue to carry out equality impact assessments.
Source: Speech by David Cameron MP (Prime Minister), 19 November 2012 | Press release 22 November 2012, Welsh Government
Links: Speech | Downing Street press release | Hansard | MOJ press release | BPF press release | CFBT blog post | CPRE press release | Full Fact comment | IRR press release | Labour Party press release | NAVCA press release | NEF blog post | TUC press release | UKHRB press release | Welsh Government press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Public Finance report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Nov
A report examined the challenge of creating legitimate space for innovation within the systems and processes of public administration.
Source: Jesper Christiansen and Laura Bunt, Innovation in Policy: Allowing for creativity, social complexity and uncertainty in public governance, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
Date: 2012-Oct
A report by a committee of MPs said that ministerial special advisors needed better training and support to prevent future problems and misunderstandings about their role and conduct. Ministers needed to recognize that they had responsibility, not just accountability, for the conduct of their special advisors, and should actively ensure that they were fully aware of what their advisors were doing in their name.
Source: Special Advisors in the Thick of It, Sixth Report (Session 2012–13), HC 134, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | BBC report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Oct
A study of the state of democracy in Britain over the previous decade warned that it was in 'long-term terminal decline' as the power of corporations kept growing, politicians became less representative of their constituencies, and disillusioned citizens stopped voting or even discussing current affairs.
Source: Stuart Wilks-Heeg, Andrew Blick, and Stephen Crone, How Democratic is the UK? The 2012 audit, Democratic Audit
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Jul
The coalition announced (in a written parliamentary statement on the last day before the summer recess) that it was changing the procedures under which government departments and other public bodies consulted when developing policy and legislation. There would be a 'more proportionate and targeted approach' rather than following the same 'bureaucratic' process. It said that government departments would no longer follow a 'default' 12-week consultation period, and that the expectation was that consultation would normally be carried out by digital means.
Source: Consultation Principles, Cabinet Office | Written Ministerial Statement 17 July 2012, column 117WS, House of Commons Hansard, TSO
Links: Guidelines | Hansard
Date: 2012-Jul
A think-tank report examined ways in which the coalition government could renew its political programme at the mid-term point, and find a shared approach to major policy challenges such as adult social care reform and local government finance.
Source: Akash Paun and Stuart Hallifax, A Game of Two Halves: How coalition governments renew in mid-term and last the full term, Institute for Government
Links: Report | IFG press release
Date: 2012-Jun
A think-tank paper said that state funding weakened the independence of charities, making them less inclined to criticize government policy. This could create a 'sock puppet' version of civil society, giving the illusion of grassroots support for new legislation. State-funded charities usually campaigned for causes that did not enjoy widespread support among the general public (such as foreign aid). They typically lobbied for bigger government, higher taxes, greater regulation, and the creation of new agencies to oversee and enforce new laws. Unrestricted grants to charities should be abolished, and a new category of 'non-profit organization' should be created for organizations that received substantial funds from statutory sources.
Source: Christopher Snowdon, Sock Puppets: How the government lobbies itself and why, Institute of Economic Affairs
Links: Paper | Summary | NCVO press release | Charity Times report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Jun
A new book examined European Union constitutional law in relation to economic and social integration, contrasting 'liberal' and 'socially embedded' constitutionalism. It proposed a 'constitution of social governance', under which the European Court of Justice and EU institutions would encourage steps towards social integration at EU level to be taken by transnational societal actors.
Source: Dagmar Schiek, Economic and Social Integration: The Challenge for EU Constitutional Law, Edward Elgar Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-May
An article examined the involvement of sub-national authorities and national parliaments in policy co-ordination in the area of welfare policy in the European Union. The involvement of sub-national authorities was uneven, depending on their constitutional structures, as federal and regionalized states in general had more elaborate mechanisms: but some centralized states had sophisticated systems too, which pointed to governance practices also playing a role. Throughout the EU, national parliaments remained largely decoupled from the open method of co-ordination. In the case of both sub-national authorities and parliaments, their input was greater in the preparatory phase than in the ex-post evaluation, which had implications for democratic policy-making.
Source: Anna Michalski, 'Social welfare and levels of democratic government in the EU', Journal of European Economic Integration, Volume 34 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
A report by a committee of MPs said that it had 'little confidence' that the coalition government's policies were informed by a clear, coherent, strategic approach. The government was failing to co-ordinate and reconcile priorities, to ensure that long-term and short-term goals were coherent across departments. Policy decisions were made for short-term reasons, little reflecting the longer-term interests of the nation. The MPs called on the government to publish an annual 'Statement of National Strategy' in Parliament, reflecting the interests of all parts of the United Kingdom and the devolved policy agendas.
Source: Strategic Thinking in Government: Without national strategy, can viable government strategy emerge?, Twenty Fourth Report (Session 2010-12), HC 1625, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | IFG press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Apr
A think-tank report examined how the exercise of the power of legislative initiative by the European Commission had evolved over the years, and whether the role of the European Commission as initiator of legislative proposals really had been eroded.
Source: Paolo Ponzano, Costanza Hermanin, and Daniela Corona, The Power of Initiative of the European Commission: A progressive erosion?, Notre Europe
Date: 2012-Feb
An article examined different types of policy 'punctuations' in government legislative agendas over the period 1911-2008. The first were procedural changes that had unique unrelated policies within the same issue area. Within the remaining large policy changes, high-salience punctuations were associated with increased attention in the media, whereas low-salience punctuations did not attract such scrutiny.
Source: Peter John and Shaun Bevan, 'What are policy punctuations? Large changes in the legislative agenda of the UK government, 1911-2008', Policy Studies, Volume 40 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Feb
A new book examined the perception that the European Court of Justice often failed to leave sufficient autonomy to European Union member states in developing their own legal and policy choices in areas where European and national competences overlapped.
Source: Hans-Wolfgang Micklitz and Bruno De Witte (eds.), The European Court of Justice and the Autonomy of the Member States, Intersentia
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Feb
A report by a committee of peers said that procedures should be overhauled in order to prevent government departments from ignoring and sidelining scientific evidence that affected their policies.
Source: The Role and Functions of Departmental Chief Scientific Advisers, 4th Report (Session 2010-12), HL 264, House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | British Academy press release | RSS press release | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Feb
A new book examined the European Union s 'early warning system' for subsidiarity (introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon), and how national parliaments had responded to EU legislative proposals under the system.
Source: Philipp Kiiver, The Early Warning System for the Principle of Subsidiarity: Constitutional theory and empirical reality, Routledge
Links: Summary
Notes: The early warning mechanism allows national parliaments to object to European Commission proposals within 8 weeks of publication on the grounds that they breach the principle of subsidiarity – that is, that a given objective could be achieved better at a lower level.
Date: 2012-Feb
A new book examined developments in the field of social impact assessment (SIA). A 'dramatic shift' was required in the way that socio-economic studies and community participation were undertaken: SIA needed to be the process of managing the social aspects of development, based on a holistic and integrated approach. Greater attention needed to be given to ensuring that the goals of development were attained and enhanced.
Source: Frank Vanclay and Ana Maria Esteves (eds.), New Directions in Social Impact Assessment: Conceptual and methodological advances, Edward Elgar Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jan
A paper examined the quality of impact assessments by the European Commission and the United Kingdom government between 2005 and 2010. Impact assessment was not merely a perfunctory activity: quality had improved steadily over the years, arguably as a result of learning and regulatory oversight.
Source: Oliver Fritsch, Claudio Radaelli, Lorna Schrefler, and Andrea Renda, Regulatory Quality in the European Commission and the UK: Old questions and new findings, Working Paper 362, Centre for European Policy Studies (Brussels)
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Jan