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Richard Parry
University of Edinburgh
Hugh Heclo and Aaron Wildavsky's Private
Government of Public Money was one of the
most influential public policy books of
the 1970s because of the flair of its analysis and
its pioneering use of interviews with
policy-makers. Despite a revision in 1981 it
fails to predict the demise of the system it
celebrated the Public Expenditure Survey
and associated Policy Analysis and Review
- and its influence on subsequent studies
of the Treasury has not been great. More lasting
have been its analytical themes - the
notion of ‘political administrators
’including both ministers and officials,
a ‘trial of personalities’ as the key to
policy-making, and the importance of the technical
dynamics of the system in constraining
behaviour. It pioneered a new way of writing
about British central administration, although
its depersonalised and anonymised
presentation, and masculinised image of
the ‘club’ has been superseded. Some of
the authors' policy prescriptions have also proved
prescient. Although the book now seems to lack
the systematic and quantitative analysis that
its subject-matter invited, its written style
is memorable and its effect on other researchers
remains inspirational.
References
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Heclo, H. (1974), Modern Social Politics in
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Rhodes, R.A.W. (ed.) (2000), Transforming
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Roseveare, H. (1969), The Treasury: the
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Thain, C. and Wright, M. (1995), The
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of Public Expenditure 1976-93, ( Oxford:
Clarendon Press ).
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Theakston, K. (1999), Leadership in
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Treasury Committee (House of Commons)
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Wildavsky, A. (1964), The Politics of the
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Wildavsky, A. (1988), The New Politics of
the Budgetary Process, ( Glenview: Scott,
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