Public Administration in Great Britain

Public Administration in Great Britain OMAR GUERRERO-OROZCO Whoever shall read the admirable treatise of Tacitus on the manners of the Germans, will find that it is from them the English have bor- rowed the idea of their political government. This beautiful system was invented first in the woods. Montesquieu, De l’espirit des lois, 1741 Translated by Margaret Schroeder Revised by the author Layout by Leticia Pérez Solís Table of Contents Prologue .................................... 11 Introduction ................................. 15 Part One THE BRITISH PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Chapter 1 THE BRITISH CULTURE ...................... 27 Cultural Diversity in Administration ............. 28 Neo-Latins and Anglo-Saxons .................. 30 Causes of the “decline” of the neo-latin peoples ............. 31 Looking to the future ................................ 35 Germanic Peoples in Britannia .................. 36 Roman Britannia .................................. 37 Germanic migration ................................ 43 Destruction of the Roman Civilization ................. 45 Halting National Unity ............................. 48 Chapter 2 THE CHARACTER OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE ... 51 Insularity and Territoriality ..................... 51 7 Omar Guerrero-Orozco The British ................................. 56 Politics ..................................... 63 The Language ............................... 67 Chapter 3 THE FORMATION OF THE BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE STATE: INTERNAL FACTORS .................. 73 Causes of the Uniqueness of the British Administration 74 Judicial Administration as Public Administration .... 76 The Insular Influence ......................... 81 The Industrial Revolution ...................... 84 Chapter 4 THE FORMATION OF THE BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE STATE: EXTERNAL FACTORS 91 The Role of India in the Modernization of the British Administration ................... 92 The Administrative Revolution .................. 98 Chapter 5 THE BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE CULTURE. 105 Administrative Discretion ...................... 106 Administrative Law ........................... 108 The Civil Service ............................. 113 The Public Corporation ....................... 119 Local Administration and Centralization .......... 125 Chapter 6 BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE CULTURE AND THE NEOMANAGERIAL MENACE ........ 133 The Privatization of Public Administration ........ 134 The Neomanagerial Reform .................... 138 8 Table of Contents Part Two ADMINISTRATIVE THOUGHT IN GREAT BRITAIN Chapter 7 THE ORIGIN OF BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE THOUGHT ................................. 145 The Briton, a Practical Man .................... 146 The Founders of British Administrative Thought ... 152 Chapter 8 THE SCIENCE OF THE BRITISH PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 157 The London Circle ............................. 158 W.H. Moreland: the Epistemological Construction of the British Public Administration .............. 166 Chapter 9 INCORPORATION OF THE BRITISH PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION INTO GLOBAL ACADEMIC CIRCLES ................................... 173 Maturation of British Administrative Thought ...... 174 Richard Warner ............................... 174 Edgar Norman Gladden ........................ 178 C.H. Sisson .................................. 181 Consolidation of the Science of British Public Administration .............................. 184 Chapter 10 CONTEMPORARY BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE THOUGHT ................................. 197 The Theory of Public Administration ............. 197 Administrative Ideas In The New Managerial Age .. 202 Epilogue .................................... 213 Bibliography ................................. 217 9 Prologue n studies of public administration, it is a common practice to concentrate on the cases of Germany and France. Both countriesI are considered exemplar models of the evolution of public administration. On one hand, Germany stands out by its public service and its schools of public administration. On the other, France enjoys of a celebrated reputation form its intendences (quartermasters) and centralization. In contrast with both countries, Great Britain tends to be less attractive despite the prestige achieved by its civil service, which is usually considered behind the German and French, and with poor originality. Similarly, its administrative thought is usually judged as underdeveloped and unsubstan- tial. Naturally, these points of view are the product of not knowing the evolution of British administration, and in con- sequence, of wrong and biased interpretations. In fact, Great Britain is fascinating because of the hidden secrets of its public administration, which provide a wide and stimulating re- search agenda. The objective of this book is to bring the transcendence of British public administration into perspective. By studying Britain’s public administration from a perspective outside the country, we show that its historical evolution has an ascendant 11 Omar Guerrero-Orozco character that originates in a chaotic organization that even- tually was replaced by a rational scheme. More specifically, the amateurs that initially formed the British public service were replaced by professional public servants that today enjoy of a similar reputation to that of Germany and France. For this purpose, we make use of administrative culture as an epistemological resource that facilitates the observation of its own singularities, i.e. its being, doing, feeling and thinking. Such a resource exposes a country endowed with a modern and effi- cient public administration. Moreover, it shows that Britain has developed an outstanding administrative thought, neces- sary to understand its peculiar case. Great Britain is not well known in the administrative literature. For example, recent studies have paid more atten- tion to the Roman heritage and its transcendence in the de- velopment of the country. Besides Adriano’s wall and the public baths from Bath, Roman public administration developed important projects such as the roads and, a masterpiece, the postal service. Beyond the Roman legacy, Britain has developed an outstanding theory of the administrative estate. This comprises the Exchequer, public enterprises, centralization, and administrative law. One of the fundamental contributions of the British political regime, self-government, has evolved asymptotically close to the local governments form the European continent, and progressively interacts with vari- ous centralization processes. Two British authors outstand among the main contribu- tors to administrative thought. The first is William Harrison Moreland, founder of the science of public administration in Great Britain. The second, Edgar Norman Gladden, system- atized the study of public administration through the devel- opment of three texts that today remain as masterpieces for the teachings and diffusion of the discipline. The ideas pub- lished in a world-class book in the 1940s by a forgotten author, Richard Warner, are central to understand the evolution 12 Prologue Britain’s public administration. Britain leaded the privatization of the public administration, not only as a detachment process of public companies, but also as scientific of knowledge. However, the antidote to neoliberalism was found in the same academic halls; developing a body of knowledge in favor of public administration. In summary, we can say that in British public administration, what is unknown seems to be more interesting than what is known. The book is organized in ten chapters, grouped into two parts. Chapter one introduces the idea of a British administrative culture by studying its Briton, Saxon, and Roman compo- nents. In chapter two we emphasize the insular aspect of the country through the lens of its language and politics. The purpose of chapter three is to analyze the formation process of a British state by looking at internal factors such as the develop- ment of a judicial administration and the industrial revolution. In contrast, chapter studies the external factors that contributed to the raise of a British state: the British experi- ence in India and the administrative revolution. In chapter six, we focus on the British administrative culture, from which its civil service, public enterprises, and local governments stand out. Moreover, this chapter introduces the public manage- ment in Britain, where it originated and subsequently diffused across the globe. These chapters integrate the first part of the book, providing a general overview of the public administration in Britain. The second part of the book treats the British administrative thought in depth. It begins with chapter seven, where we explore the early origins of seminal administrative ideas in the country. Chapter eight carefully studies the ‘London Circle’, a group of remarkable intellectuals who leaded the frontier of administrative thought in Britain. Some of its most prominent members were Harold Laski and Herman Finer. Additionally, we restitute the place of an outstanding 13 Omar Guerrero-Orozco forgotten thinker, W. H. Moreland, as the founder of the discipline of public administration in Britain. In chapter 9 we study the contributions of Richard Warner, E. N. Gladden, and C. H. Sisson, as part of a worldwide process in which countries assimilated public administration ideas as part of their institutions. Finally, chapter ten provides a detailed ex- position of contemporary administrative thought. Omar Guerrero-Orozco Autumn,

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