Edward C Page
Biographic Data
| ID | 711560 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Edward C Page |
| GIVEN NAMES | Edward C |
| FAMILY NAME | Page |
| SIGNATURE | PAGE E C |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7117-3342 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 62 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 230 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 58 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1917 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Growing intensity in the fifteenth century
Using the notion of growing governmental ‘intensity’, referring to a more visible presence of government among communities, a growing integration between wider area and local forms of government, as well as a growing popular involvement in governmental institutions, this chapter examines levels of professionalism and organizational differentiation in later medieval government, more marked in service officialdom such as municipal government, as we…
If not Weber, then what?
A range of theories tend to fall short when one looks for an account of bureaucratic development. Common problems include the treatment of bureaucratization as a ‘syndrome’, the concentration on one or other period as decisive in its development, and the overestimation of the role of state reforms in creating bureaucracies. Borrowing from Francis Fukuyama’s broad insights, this chapter develops an account of the development of bureaucracy that st…
Absolutism, bureaucracy, and eighteenth-century fiscal-military states
The eighteenth century is interesting because it appears to be the time when many of the features of modern bureaucracy became especially apparent. The linkage between early modern ‘absolutism’ and bureaucracy occupies a prominent place in many historical accounts of state development, as terms used to describe the government of the period, above all ‘absolutism’ and the ‘fiscal-military state’, suggest an enhanced ability of national/central aut…
Constitutional officialdom
The massive changes in the character of bureaucracy after the 1950s over the eighteenth century include the expansion of service officialdom and increasingly systematic elaboration of institutional structures of administration, above all the development of ministerial organizations. In particular, changes in the character of law as an instrument of public policy created a significantly new role for officials in ministries, under the legitimized p…
Preface
Twelfth-century feudal officialdom
Government in the twelfth century is often described as ‘feudal’, albeit this is a controversial term. It does point to the fragmentation of political authority among a variety of different ‘lordships’ within a territory. Alongside this fragmentation, the period witnesses significant elaboration of forms of administrative organization consistent with Weber’s argument, above all in the elaboration of forms of service officialdom. In this period, i…
Copyright Page
Dedication
Weber’s scorecard
In assessing the scorecard of Weber’s account, we can point to the clear accuracy of two of the four features of development as characterizing the progress towards ‘bureaucratic’ government. The functional division of labour within officialdom and the growth of professionalism seem to be long-running threads through the development of officialdom since the ninth century. The third, formalism, if we are scoring, is probably best attributed as a ha…
Patrimonialism and ninth-century government
Patrimonialism has a variety of different meanings, and Weber seems to use it to describe many non-bureaucratic systems of government. Looking primarily at the Carolingian empire and the Umayyad emirate, where available detail for ninth-century arrangements is more plentiful, this chapter offers an account of the secretariat, territorial, and service officialdoms that ran these two rather different systems. When looked at through the perspective …
Weber's Scorecard
Max Weber’s influential understanding of bureaucracy is explored through an examination of the development of officialdom in six European territories: England, Sweden, France, Germany, Spain, and Hungary. Taking a long-term perspective from the ninth century to the present, it looks beyond national institutions and includes officials involved in the provision of goods and services locally. The ‘scorecard’ is based on expected developments in four…
The Problem of Governing
Geoffrey Kingdon Fry and the British road to public sector reform
To mark the 2023 death of GK Fry this note focuses attention on the approach to public sector reform in Britain discussed in his many works. Starting with his criticism of the 1968 Fulton Committee Report, his work developed a view of reform that foreshadowed debates that later went under the label of ‘new public management’ by at least 20 years. This note explains how he argued that a ‘positive state’ or Fabian approach dominated thinking about …
Distributing status
Charlemagne's Practice of Empire
The Oxford Handbook of Classics in Public Policy and Administration
This handbook presents assessments of classic works in public policy and administration by an international collection of contemporary scholars. These classic works include books written by such illustrious intellectuals as Mancur Olson, Elinor Ostrom, and Herbert Simon. The list of contributors offering assessments of these classic works is impressive as well, featuring scholars such as Peter John, David Lowery, and Laurence E. Lynn, Jr. Each ch…
Undergraduate Research
Undergraduate research, the practice of teaching students by engaging them in a research project, has a long record of achievement. Research-based evaluations show it is likely to have a range of positive educational and career outcomes for students. Many examinations of these benefits apply to STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This article sets out one approach to undergraduate research in political science, based…
Policy Without Politicians
"Have bureaucrats taken over the decision making role of politicians? This book offers a direct assessment of the role of bureaucrats in policy making by analysing how they shape policy in making decrees - laws that generally do not pass through full legislative scrutiny. These are often described as "secondary legislation" and are known by a variety of names (including decrets, arretes, administrative regulations, Verordnungen, statutory instrum…
Le fonctionnaire en tant que législateur
Comment les politiques du gouvernement sont-elles transformées en lois et que se passe-t-il lors de cette conversion ? Le rôle des fonctionnaires dans la préparation de la législation est bien plus important qu'on ne le pense généralement. En étudiant la composition et les méthodes de travail des quatre dernières bill teams en Grande-Bretagne - des équipes de fonctionnaires ayant pour tâche la préparation du travail législatif -, il est possible …
Has the Whitehall Model survived
The expression ‘Whitehall Model’ has a certain heuristic value for describing four key features of the British civil service, namely political neutrality, generalism, life-long career paths and a strong policy advisory role. This model has been challenged by politicization, changes in career management and recruitment as well as increasing competition from other sources of policy advice. The UK civil service’s role in relation to ministers seems …
Accountability as a Bureaucratic Minefield
The large and growing literature on accountability highlights a variety of mechanisms by which bureaucrats may be held accountable as regards their role in the policy-making process. This paper looks at accountability mechanisms from the bureaucrat's perspective using material gathered for a study of bureaucratic roles in rulemaking in Sweden, Germany, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and the European Union. It asks to which of the m…
Bureaucrats and expertise
It is frequently assumed that the expertise of bureaucrats gives them policy-making power. This paper examines critically this proposition on the basis of a study of 52 regulations passed in six jurisdictions. The paper presents the material from this study in the form of three tableaux: the bureaucrat as expert, the bureaucrat as mobiliser of expertise and the bureaucrat as servant of experts. Expertise is primarily understood as either scientif…
From the Active to the Enabling State
This book surveys the changing role of senior civil servants in Western Europe and explores whether they have kept their central role in government decision-making. Looking at these issues in comparat
Political Authority and Bureaucratic Power
The updated edition of this text develops a Weberian perspective through a comparative analysis of the development of bureaucracy in France, Germany, Britain and the USA. It explores the recruitment, training, work and competence of top bureaucrats and includes a section on the EC perspective.
Their word is law
The Civil Servant as Legislator
How are government policy commitments converted into legislation and what happens in the conversion? The role of civil servants in preparing legislation is far more important than is generally assumed. By looking at the work of four recent bill teams in Britain – teams of civil servants given the task of developing Acts of Parliament – their crucial roles in initiating policies, placing them on the political agenda (even helping secure their plac…
Intergenerational Justice and Climate Change
Global climate change has important implications for the way in which benefits and burdens will be distributed amongst present and future generations. As a result it raises important questions of intergenerational justice. It is shown that there is at least one serious problem for those who wish to approach these questions by utilizing familiar principles of justice. This is that such theories often pre-suppose harm-based accounts of injustice wh…
Michael Hechter's Internal Colonial Thesis
Hechter's model of internal colonialism provides a new and refreshing insight into the development of the United Kingdom. It is to be hoped that Hechter's analysis will prompt further studies of the nature of regional inequalities not only in the British Isles but also in other developed polities. There are, however, certain criticisms which must be met before the model can be accepted as giving an adequate account of regional differences within …
The Insider/Outsider Distinction
The distinction between ‘insiders' and ‘outsiders' occupies a central role in thinking about the relationship between government and interest groups in Britain. Usually, the accuracy of such distinctions are based on studies of small numbers of groups. The results of a survey of 381 groups reveals that relatively few groups could be classed as pure outsiders, while a much larger number have the features of the insider. While the methodology emplo…
A Critique of the Consumption Cleavage Approach in British Voting Studies
In recent years the theory of consumption cleavages has progressed far towards supplanting traditional explanations of voting behaviour resting on socialization and issue-based electoral choice. What is not often realized is that the new theory cannot readily coexist with traditional explanations. If consumption cleavage theory is right then much of what we thought we understood about political behaviour is wrong; and the implications of this con…
Accountability as a Bureaucratic Minefield
The large and growing literature on accountability highlights a variety of mechanisms by which bureaucrats may be held accountable as regards their role in the policy-making process. This paper looks at accountability mechanisms from the bureaucrat's perspective using material gathered for a study of bureaucratic roles in rulemaking in Sweden, Germany, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and the European Union. It asks to which of the m…
Bureaucrats and expertise
It is frequently assumed that the expertise of bureaucrats gives them policy-making power. This paper examines critically this proposition on the basis of a study of 52 regulations passed in six jurisdictions. The paper presents the material from this study in the form of three tableaux: the bureaucrat as expert, the bureaucrat as mobiliser of expertise and the bureaucrat as servant of experts. Expertise is primarily understood as either scientif…
Has the Whitehall Model survived
The expression ‘Whitehall Model’ has a certain heuristic value for describing four key features of the British civil service, namely political neutrality, generalism, life-long career paths and a strong policy advisory role. This model has been challenged by politicization, changes in career management and recruitment as well as increasing competition from other sources of policy advice. The UK civil service’s role in relation to ministers seems …
British Political Science and Comparative Politics
The internationalization of political science makes it especially difficult to identify a distinctive British approach to comparative politics. While there is certainly evidence of a distaste for cross-national comparison in Britain, this is no more marked than in other countries. In fact, on the evidence of a survey of major journals, Britons make relatively heavy use of the comparative method. British comparative research is less likely to use …
The Impact Of European Legislation On British Public Policy Making
Bureaucratic Politics and Political Leadership in Brussels
Political leadership offers an exceptionally important vehicle for democratic control in modem political systems. In national political systems this may be exercised by ministers. In the European Community the closest equivalent to a national minister is the commissioner. How well equipped are commissioners to exercise political leadership? This article examines the backgrounds and careers of all 76 commissioners, past and present, and argues tha…
Time, Parties and Budgetary Change
The ideological differences between the Labour and Conservative parties in the 1980s are greater than at any time in the postwar era. Consequently one would expect party control at the local level to have an increasing effect on local government decisions. Using an approach to cross-time analysis that avoids some of the major shortcomings of other studies, the relationship between party control and local fiscal decisions in English cities between…
The Dynamics of Eu Growth
Since the European Union is a law-intensive organization, growth of EU activity can best be assessed by the growth of regulation rather than by growth in expenditure or personnel. Moreover, the character of EU decision-making means that traditional explanations of policy growth have to be substantially adapted before they can be applied to the EU. An empirical analysis of all legislation ever issued by the EU and its predecessors tests a number o…
Comparative Public Administration in Britain
According to a strict definition, comparative public administration in Britain is relatively undeveloped. However, once the definition is relaxed it is possible to see that scholars in the British Isles make a substantial contribution to the field. This contribution can be examined under four headings; single country studies, juxtapositions, thematic comparisons and causal explanations. While causal explanation must remain as one major objective …
The Political Origins of Self-Government and Bureaucracy
The work of Otto Hintze offers a rare combination of long-term historical perspective, detailed description of institutional arrangements, exploration of broad developmental trends as well as understanding of the factors producing divergent patterns of political development. One of the dominant themes of his comparative writing is his conception of Europe as comprising a heartland, which developed military-bureaucratic government institutions, an…
German responses to regime change
How have Germans, East and West, responded to dramatic changes in their political and economic regimes resulting from re‐unification? Since every German has lived under at least two regimes, evaluations of the present are made in the light of experience of their previous regime, the pre‐unification Federal Republic or the German Democratic Republic. This article analyses the 1993 German Re‐Unification Survey to test the extent to which Germans ha…
Grant Consolidation and the Development of Intergovernmental Relations in the United States and the United Kingdom
The Measurement of Central Control
Laws as an Instrument of Policy
Law is an instrument which can be used by central government to influence its environment, including other levels of government. This paper examines a number of fundamental questions about the nature of legal influence upon local authorities in Britain. Legislation affects local authorities in a variety of ways: through making direct reference to local authority organisations and the services they provide; through affecting all large organisation…
Undergraduate Research
Undergraduate research, the practice of teaching students by engaging them in a research project, has a long record of achievement. Research-based evaluations show it is likely to have a range of positive educational and career outcomes for students. Many examinations of these benefits apply to STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This article sets out one approach to undergraduate research in political science, based…
Expertise and Policy‐making
Professional influence in policy‐making is generally believed to rest on professionals successfully laying claim to access to expertise – knowledge, understanding or experience – not available to others, above all politicians. On the basis of a 2005 survey of nearly 800 lawyers serving in local authorities in England and Wales, this article explores the relationship between specialization and political influence. Lawyers who shape policy use conv…
Action in adversity
A 'satisficing' model of response to adversity is used to compare the reaction of Britain and Germany to the common stimulus of large and visible increases in structural unemployment since the mid‐1970s. Initially, both countries responded similarly, spending lots more money on existing programmes. However, as dissatisfaction persisted, responses differed: British governments sought to achieve satisfaction by a trial‐and‐error search, introducing…
Remoteness, Efficiency, Cost and the Reorganization of Scottish Local Government
Charlemagne's Practice of Empire
Le fonctionnaire en tant que législateur
Comment les politiques du gouvernement sont-elles transformées en lois et que se passe-t-il lors de cette conversion ? Le rôle des fonctionnaires dans la préparation de la législation est bien plus important qu'on ne le pense généralement. En étudiant la composition et les méthodes de travail des quatre dernières bill teams en Grande-Bretagne - des équipes de fonctionnaires ayant pour tâche la préparation du travail législatif -, il est possible …
The Plain Story of American History
The plain story of American history. By John Spencer Bassett, Ph.D., Sydenham Clark Parsons professor of American history, Smith college. (New York: The Macmillan company, 1916. 545 p. $1.00) Get access Edward Carlton Page Edward Carlton Page Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 4, Issue 3, December 1917, Pages 406–407, https://doi.org/10.2307/1888623 Published: 01 December 1…
An American history
Journal Article An American history. By Eleanor E. Riggs, M.A., vice-principal of the Sophie B. Wright high school, New Orleans, Louisiana. (New York: Macmillan company, 1916. 526 p. $1.00) Get access Edward C. Page Edward C. Page Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 3, Issue 4, March 1917, Pages 566–567, https://doi.org/10.2307/1889172 Published: 01 March 1917
History of the United States
Journal Article History of the United States. By John Holladay Latané, Ph.D., professor of American history, Johns Hopkins university. (New York: Allyn and Bacon, 1918. 589 p.) Get access Edward C. Page Edward C. Page Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 6, Issue 1, June 1919, Pages 144–145, https://doi.org/10.2307/1886680 Published: 01 June 1919
The Story of Illinois
The Story of Illinois. By Theodore Calvin Pease. (Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1925. xxi, 394 p. 22 illustrations and portraits, 2 maps. $2.50) Get access Edward Carlton Page Edward Carlton Page Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 13, Issue 1, June 1926, Pages 118–120, https://doi.org/10.2307/1892584 Published: 01 June 1926
Michael Hechter's Internal Colonial Thesis
Hechter's model of internal colonialism provides a new and refreshing insight into the development of the United Kingdom. It is to be hoped that Hechter's analysis will prompt further studies of the nature of regional inequalities not only in the British Isles but also in other developed polities. There are, however, certain criticisms which must be met before the model can be accepted as giving an adequate account of regional differences within …
Remoteness, Efficiency, Cost and the Reorganization of Scottish Local Government
The Measurement of Central Control
Grant Consolidation and the Development of Intergovernmental Relations in the United States and the United Kingdom
Fiscal Stress in Cities
A Critique of the Consumption Cleavage Approach in British Voting Studies
In recent years the theory of consumption cleavages has progressed far towards supplanting traditional explanations of voting behaviour resting on socialization and issue-based electoral choice. What is not often realized is that the new theory cannot readily coexist with traditional explanations. If consumption cleavage theory is right then much of what we thought we understood about political behaviour is wrong; and the implications of this con…
Laws as an Instrument of Policy
Law is an instrument which can be used by central government to influence its environment, including other levels of government. This paper examines a number of fundamental questions about the nature of legal influence upon local authorities in Britain. Legislation affects local authorities in a variety of ways: through making direct reference to local authority organisations and the services they provide; through affecting all large organisation…
Power in Capitalist Society
Private Power and Centralization in France
Mayors and Mayoral Careers
Utilizing data from a survey of cities with populations of 100,000 or more, we examine the background characteristics and political careers of large-city mayors. The background characteristics of this elite group are substantially different from the mass public's but are similar to elected officials' at other levels of government. At the mayoral level electoral turnover is frequent, and partisan change is not uncommon. However, most of the turnov…
The Political Origins of Self-Government and Bureaucracy
The work of Otto Hintze offers a rare combination of long-term historical perspective, detailed description of institutional arrangements, exploration of broad developmental trends as well as understanding of the factors producing divergent patterns of political development. One of the dominant themes of his comparative writing is his conception of Europe as comprising a heartland, which developed military-bureaucratic government institutions, an…
Action in adversity
A 'satisficing' model of response to adversity is used to compare the reaction of Britain and Germany to the common stimulus of large and visible increases in structural unemployment since the mid‐1970s. Initially, both countries responded similarly, spending lots more money on existing programmes. However, as dissatisfaction persisted, responses differed: British governments sought to achieve satisfaction by a trial‐and‐error search, introducing…
British Political Science and Comparative Politics
The internationalization of political science makes it especially difficult to identify a distinctive British approach to comparative politics. While there is certainly evidence of a distaste for cross-national comparison in Britain, this is no more marked than in other countries. In fact, on the evidence of a survey of major journals, Britons make relatively heavy use of the comparative method. British comparative research is less likely to use …
Time, Parties and Budgetary Change
The ideological differences between the Labour and Conservative parties in the 1980s are greater than at any time in the postwar era. Consequently one would expect party control at the local level to have an increasing effect on local government decisions. Using an approach to cross-time analysis that avoids some of the major shortcomings of other studies, the relationship between party control and local fiscal decisions in English cities between…
Localism and Centralism in Europe
A study of the legal and political basis of relationships between national and local government in Britain, France Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and Spain. The author examines the differences between these countries and their implications for patterns of policy-making at local level.
Bureaucratic Politics and Political Leadership in Brussels
Political leadership offers an exceptionally important vehicle for democratic control in modem political systems. In national political systems this may be exercised by ministers. In the European Community the closest equivalent to a national minister is the commissioner. How well equipped are commissioners to exercise political leadership? This article examines the backgrounds and careers of all 76 commissioners, past and present, and argues tha…
Research news
Comparative Public Administration in Britain
According to a strict definition, comparative public administration in Britain is relatively undeveloped. However, once the definition is relaxed it is possible to see that scholars in the British Isles make a substantial contribution to the field. This contribution can be examined under four headings; single country studies, juxtapositions, thematic comparisons and causal explanations. While causal explanation must remain as one major objective …
German responses to regime change
How have Germans, East and West, responded to dramatic changes in their political and economic regimes resulting from re‐unification? Since every German has lived under at least two regimes, evaluations of the present are made in the light of experience of their previous regime, the pre‐unification Federal Republic or the German Democratic Republic. This article analyses the 1993 German Re‐Unification Survey to test the extent to which Germans ha…
The Development of the European Polity
The Dynamics of Eu Growth
Since the European Union is a law-intensive organization, growth of EU activity can best be assessed by the growth of regulation rather than by growth in expenditure or personnel. Moreover, the character of EU decision-making means that traditional explanations of policy growth have to be substantially adapted before they can be applied to the EU. An empirical analysis of all legislation ever issued by the EU and its predecessors tests a number o…
Political science (50 works) · Law (38 works) · Politics (29 works) · Sociology (25 works) · Economics (23 works) · Law (23 works) · Public Administration (20 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · History (11 works) · Bureaucracy (10 works)