Omar Guerrero-Orozco Public Administration in Great Britain '. DE CULTURA # Mexican Culture Seminar State of Mexico's Institute of Public Administration Public Administration in Great Britain Omar Guerrero-Orozco PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN GREAT BRITAIN: HISTORY, INSTITUTIONS, AND IDEAS 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 borrowed 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 Omar Guerrero-Orozco 1 Public Administration in Great Britain Omar Guerrero-Orozco TABLE OF CONTENTS Prologue 5 Introduction 7 Part One THE BRITISH PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Chapter 1 THE BRITISH CULTURE 15 Cultural Diversity in Administration 15 Neo-Latins and Anglo-Saxons 17 Causes of the “decline” of the neo-latin peoples 17 Looking to the future 19 Germanic Peoples in Britannia 21 Roman Britannia 21 Germanic migration 25 Destruction of the Roman Civilization 26 Halting National Unity 28 Chapter 2 THE CHARACTER OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE 30 Insularity and Territoriality 30 The British 34 Politics 38 The Language 41 Chapter 3 THE FORMATION OF THE BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE STATE: INTERNAL FACTORS 45 Causes of the Uniqueness of the British Administration 45 Judicial Administration as Public Administration 47 The Insular Influence 50 The Industrial Revolution 52 2 Public Administration in Great Britain Omar Guerrero-Orozco Chapter 4 THE FORMATION OF THE BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE STATE: EXTERNAL FACTORS 56 The Role of India in the Modernization of the British Administration 56 The Administrative Revolution 61 Chapter 5 THE BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE CULTURE 64 Administrative Discretion 64 Administrative Law 66 The Civil Service 70 The Public Corporation 74 Local Administration and Centralization 78 Chapter 6 BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE CULTURE AND THE NEOMANAGERIAL MENACE 82 The Privatization of Public Administration 82 The Neomanagerial Reform 85 Part Two ADMINISTRATIVE THOUGHT IN GREAT BRITAIN Chapter 7 THE ORIGIN OF BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE THOUGHT 89 The Briton, a Practical Man 89 The Founders of British Administrative Thought 94 Chapter 8 THE SCIENCE OF THE BRITISH PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 96 The London Circle 96 W.H. Moreland: the Epistemological Construction of the British Public Administration 102 3 Public Administration in Great Britain Omar Guerrero-Orozco Chapter 9 INCORPORATION OF THE BRITISH PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION INTO GLOBAL ACADEMIC CIRCLES 105 Maturation of British Administrative Thought 105 Richard Warner 105 Edgar Norman Gladden 108 C.H. Sisson 111 Consolidation of the Science of British Public Administration 113 Chapter 10 CONTEMPORARY BRITISH ADMINISTRATIVE THOUGHT 120 The Theory of Public Administration 120 Administrative Ideas in the New Managerial Age 124 EPILOGUE 129 BIBLIOGRAPHY 132 4 Public Administration in Great Britain Omar Guerrero-Orozco PROLOGUE In studies of public administration, it is a common practice to concentrate on the cases of Germany and France. Both countries 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 unsubstantial. Naturally, these points of view are the product of not knowing the evolution of British administration, and in consequence, 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 research 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 character that originates in a chaotic organization that eventually 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 efficient public administration. Moreover, it shows that Britain has developed an outstanding administrative thought, necessary to understand its peculiar case. Great Britain is not well known in the administrative literature. For example, recent studies have paid more attention to the Roman heritage and its transcendence in the development 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 various centralization processes. Two British authors outstand among the main contributors to administrative thought. The first is William Harrison Moreland, founder of the science of public administration in Great Britain. The second, Edgar Norman Gladden, systematized the study of public administration through the development of three texts that today remain as masterpieces for the teachings and diffusion of the discipline. The ideas published in a world-class book in the 5 Public Administration in Great Britain Omar Guerrero-Orozco 1940s by a forgotten author, Richard Warner, are central to understand the evolution 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 components. 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 development 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 experience 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 management 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 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 exposition of contemporary administrative thought. Omar Guerrero-Orozco Autumn, 2014 6 Public Administration in Great Britain Omar Guerrero-Orozco INTRODUCTION I It was some time ago that the study of public administration first began to examine administrative culture from development and comparative methodology points of view. One of the pioneering works in this regard appeared in the mid-1950s, and stimulated the contributions of further researchers whose many years of work laid the foundation for a cosmopolitan vision of public administration. Among them were Lynton Cladwell, Ferrel Heady, Albert Lepawsky and Fred Riggs (Siffin, 1957). This research, which is still ongoing, focuses on analyzing the unique aspects of the administrative culture of each respective country on the basis of its degree of overall “administrative