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                                                          DECENTRALIZING THE CIVIL SERVICE
                                                          From Unitary State to Differentiated Polity 
                                                          in the United Kingdom
                                                          This book is concerned with the civil services of the United
                                                          Kingdom, examining their characteristics and trends since
                                                          1970. It provides a map of the British civil service beyond                          Decentralizing the Civil Service        Decentralizing
                                                          Whitehall, giving an individual country-by-country analysis of
                                                          the civil services of the UK. It considers the implications of the
                                                          changing nature of the civil services for our understanding of
                                                          British governance, especially in the context of the public
                                                          sector management reforms of the 1980s and 1990s and the
                                                          impact of constitutional change (chiefly devolution) since 1998.
                                                          Given that devolution has been characterized as a process                                                                    the Civil
                                                          rather than an event, the book brings to bear evidence of how
                                                          existing longstanding differences within some parts of British
                                                          public administration may come to be replicated elsewhere in
                                                          the UK.
                                                          The authors also explore two controversial propositions. First
                                                          they ask whether Britain is moving from the unitary, strong                                                                  Service
                                                          executive of the ‘Westminster model’ to a ‘differentiated
                                                          polity’ characterized by institutional fragmentation. Second,
                                                          they consider whether an unintended consequence of recent
                                                          changes is a ‘hollowing out of the state’. Is the British
                                                          executive losing functions downwards to devolved                                                                              From unitary state to differentiated
                                                          governments and special-purpose bodies and outwards to
                                                          regional offices and agencies with a resulting loss of central
                                                          capacity? Substantial empirical data (both quantitative and                                                                   polity in the United Kingdom
                                                          qualitative) has been amassed here in order to give answers to                        Rhodes, Carmichael, McMillan and Massey
                                                          these questions.
                                                          Decentralizing the Civil Service assesses the UK’s changing civil
                                                          services in the wake of two decades of public sector
                                                          management reforms and New Labour’s constitutional reform                                                                     R.A.W. Rhodes,  P. Carmichael, 
                                                          programme, most notably devolution to Scotland, Wales and
                                                          Northern Ireland. This assessment has significant implications
                                                          for how we view governance in the UK.                                                                                         J. McMillan and A. Massey
                                                          R. A. W. Rhodes is Professor of Politics (Research) at the
                                                          University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Dr Paul Carmichael is
                                                          a Senior Lecturer in Public Administration at the University of
                                                                                                                                                                            Public
                                                          Ulster, Northern Ireland. Dr Janice McMillan is a Senior
                                                          Lecturer in Public Policy at Northumbria University.                                                           Policy and
                                                          Andrew Masseyis Professor of Government at the
                                                          University of Portsmouth.                                                                                     Management
                                                           www.openup.co.uk
      Decentralizing the
      Civil Service
               Public Policy and Management
               Series Editor: Professor R.A.W. Rhodes, Department of Politics, University of
               Newcastle.
               The effectiveness of public policies is a matter of public concern and the effi-
               ciency with which policies are put into practice is a continuing problem for
               governments of all political persuasions. This series contributes to these debates
               by publishing informed, in-depth and contemporary analyses of public admin-
               istration, public policy and public management.
               The intention is to go beyond the usual textbook approach to the analysis
               of public policy and management and to encourage authors to move debate
               about their issue forward. In this sense, each book describes current thinking
               and research and explores future policy directions. Accessibility is a key feature
               and, as a result, the series will appeal to academics and their students as well as
               to the informed practitioner.
               Current titles include:
               Christine Bellamy and John A. Taylor: Governing in the Information Age
               Tony Butcher: Delivering Welfare, Second Edition
               David P. Dolowitz with Rob Hulme, Mike Nellis and Fiona O’Neill: Policy
                Transfer and British Social Policy
               John Ernst: Whose Utility? The Social Impact of Public Utility Privatization and
                Regulation in Britain
               Lucy Gaster: Quality in Public Services: Managers’ Choices
               Patricia Greer: Transforming Central Government: The Next Steps Initiative
               Steve Leach, Howard Davies and Associates: Enabling or Disabling Local Govern-
                ment: Choices for the Future
               David Marsh (ed.): Comparing Policy Networks
               R.A.W. Rhodes: Understanding Governance: Policy Networks, Governance, Reflex-
                ivity and Accountability
               R.A.W. Rhodes and Patrick Weller (eds): The Changing World of Top Officials
               R.A.W. Rhodes, P. Carmichael, J. McMillan and A. Massey: Decentralizing the
                Civil Service
               Chris Skelcher: The Appointed State
               Gerald Wistow, Martin Knapp, Brian Hardy, Julien Forder, Jeremy Kendall
                and Rob Manning: Social Care Markets: Progress and Prospects
               Spencer Zifcak: New Managerialism: Administrative Reform in Whitehall and
                Canberra
           Decentralizing the
           Civil Service
           From Unitary State to Differentiated
           Polity in the United Kingdom
           R.A.W. Rhodes, P. Carmichael,
           J. McMillan and A. Massey
           Open University Press
           Buckingham · Philadelphia