The Treasury and Whitehall
The Planning and Control of Public Expenditure, 1976-1993
Maurice Wright author Colin Thain author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:2nd Nov '95
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
A remarkable insight into one of our most influential institutions
This comprehensive account of the Treasury and its control of public expenditure assesses the record through the turbulent years of the Thatcher and Major Governments. It explains how key spending decisions are made, and argues that the Treasury is obliged to negotiate discretionary authority with the Whitehall departments to control their spending.The Treasury is at the heart of British Government, responsible for deciding how much to spend and on what. Both the institution and the public expenditure process are the focus of `The Treasury and Whitehall', a tour de force of contemporary policy analysis. Based on research undertaken with the cooperation of the Treasury and Whitehall departments, it shows how the key decisions of planning, allocating and controlling public expenditure are made. With unique access to treasury Expenditure Controllers and senior financial officials in the main spending departments, the book provides a detailed and authoritative account of the roles, relationships and inter-actions of the key players in Whitehall Expenditure Community as they confront each other in annual rituals of the Expenditure 'Survey'. Thain and Wright explain how the rules of the expenditure game were re-drawn in the 1980s in the relentless search for cuts, greater economy and efficiency in the design and delivery of public services, and the creation of a more enterprising administrative culture. The authors explain how and why the Treasury was rarely able to impose its constitutional authority to stem the tide of rising public expenditure through the turbulent years of the Thatcher and Major Governments. They show that the Treasury is locked into a system of mutually constrained power-relationships with the Whitehall departments, and obliged to negotiate discretionary authority to control their spending.
A massive study of the planning and control of public expenditure in Britain since the introduction of cash limits in the mid-1970s ... this is the most thorough and comprehensive study of public expenditure available. * Times Higher Education Supplement *
Substantial study ... Thain and Wright's book stands as the definitive work in this area; impressively informative. * Parliamentary Affairs *
The authors have undertaken the most comprehensive and exhaustive analysis of the planning and control of public expenditure in Britain ever published ... this is a book that ought to be read by all students of British politics, by new institutionalists, budgetary politics specialists, and students of the comparative economic policymaking process. It gives great insight into policymaking within the original Westminster model at a time when this is more under strain than ever before. * Paul Whiteley, American Political Science Review, vol.90 no.4, 1996 *
Some books do not need long reviews. They need only one adjective to describe them. This book falls into that category and the adjective is 'monumental' ... it is authoritative administrative and contemporary history ... the book is both theoretically informed and policy relevant ... Thain and Wright provide the definitive account of the planning and control of public expenditure in Britain between 1976 and 1993. It should be in every library and, even at £60, every academic studying public expenditure will have to own a copy. * Political Studies, vol.XLV no.4 1997 *
This book is likely to be of considerable interest to anyone wishing to consider the relevance of developments in the UK as part of the comparative study of public administration ... This book is, in my opinion, the most detailed and authoritative study of the work of a department of central government ever published ... As far as I know, no other study of a central government department has been so well resourced. Moreover, it was undertaken by senior academics with well established reputations in this field ... The detail contained in the book is impressive ... Some of the general findings of the research are ... supportive of what many readers will have already suspected, and it is good to have authoritative confirmation. * Governance *
ISBN: 9780198277842
Dimensions: 241mm x 161mm x 37mm
Weight: 1098g
592 pages