Kevin Theakston
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 3485616 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Kevin Theakston |
| PRENOMES | Kevin |
| SOBRENOME | Theakston |
| ASSINATURA | THEAKSTON K |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Leeds |
| VERIFICADO | Não |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 28 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 169 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 26 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 2 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1986 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2021 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
Theresa May’s disjunctive premiership
Theresa May’s premiership is widely acknowledged to have been a failure, but political commentators and the scholarly literature have, thus far, tended to focus on May’s misuse of her agency. This article argues that May’s premiership presents a particularly powerful example of the need to disentangle structure and agency when assessing prime ministerial performance. Drawing upon the work of Stephen Skowronek, it sets out a framework of evaluatin…
The Long March Through Whitehall
The Thatcher‐Major ‘permanent revolution’ massively changed the British civil service and Whitehall. The political clout provided by strong prime ministerial backing was a key factor in sustaining the momentum of change over the 1980s and 1990s. The process of change developed piecemeal, in a step‐by‐step and, in some ways, even haphazard fashion, with ‘New Right’ ideology just one factor. Economic and financial constraints were important in driv…
Understanding the power of the prime minister
Evaluating British prime ministerial performance
This article contributes to the developing literature on prime ministerial performance in the United Kingdom by applying a critical reading of Stephen Skowronek’s account of leadership in ‘political time’ to evaluate David Cameron’s premiership. This, we propose, better understands the inter-relationship of structure and agency in prime ministerial performance than existing frameworks, particularly those based on Greenstein’s and Bulpitt’s approa…
Leaving the House
This article reports the findings of a large-scale survey investigating the experiences of the large number of MPs who left Parliament following the 2010 General Election. We have found that: the widely held perception that MPs make a smooth transition into lucrative private sector employment after leaving Parliament is largely mistaken; the MPs' expenses scandal has seriously undermined the status of MPs and, as such, may also have made a career…
Doing God” in Number 10
This article analyses British prime ministers' use of religious language and their own religious beliefs in their political rhetoric. This is used to justify policy, support their ideological positions, present a public persona, and cultivate their personal ethical appeal and credibility as values-driven political leaders. The focus is on the use and the nature of the religious arguments of Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Ca…
The Ministerial Foothills
The article assesses the role and influence of junior ministers in the Labour government of 1997–2010, putting them in context against the background of the experience and position of junior ministers in previous British governments. The article also analyses data relating to junior ministers' appointments and promotions under Labour to bring out the patterns of continuity and change in ministerial career paths. Junior ministerial jobs remain key…
The Rise of the Novice Cabinet Minister? The Career Trajectories of Cabinet Ministers in British Government from Attlee to Cameron
Some commentators have observed that today's Cabinet ministers are younger and less experienced than their predecessors. To test this claim, we analyse the data for Labour and Conservative appointments to Cabinet since 1945. Although we find some evidence of a decline in average age and prior experience, it is less pronounced than for the party leaders. We then examine the data for junior ministerial appointments, which reveals that there is no t…
Life After Political Death
What comes next after high political and governmental office in contemporary Western representative democracies? The role of former leaders is a neglected issue in the study of political leadership in representative democracies. There is no fixed or predetermined role—former leaders have to work it out for themselves, and what they do depends very much on personal choices and on circumstances. In the era of the career politician, the presidential…
Gordon Brown as prime minister
The Postwar Premiership League
The article reports the results from the latest survey of academic experts polled on the performance of post‐1945 prime ministers. Academic specialists in British politics and history rate Clement Attlee as the best postwar prime minister, with Margaret Thatcher in second place just ahead of Tony Blair in third place. Gordon Brown's stint in Number 10 was the third‐worst since the Second World War, according to the respondents to the survey that …
Using History, Making British Policy
Rating 20 th -Century British Prime Ministers
This article reports the results of a 2004 survey of academics, specialising in British politics and/or modern British history, asking them to rate all the 20 th -century British prime ministers in terms of their success in office and also asking them to assess the key characteristics of successful prime ministers. The top-ranked PMs were (in order) Attlee, Churchill, Lloyd George and Thatcher. In contrast to the many and regular surveys of Ameri…
After Number Ten
The article reviews the experience of former British prime ministers in the twentieth century. There is no fixed or predetermined role for former prime ministers. What they do after they leave office depends on personal choices and on circumstances. Some have largely disappeared from the political stage. Others have become active international ‘elder statesmen’. A couple‐Heath and Thatcher‐were embittered ‘models to avoid’. A quarter of the forme…
Prime Ministers and the Constitution
Journal Article Prime Ministers and the Constitution: Attlee to Blair Get access Kevin Theakston Kevin Theakston British Government, University of Leeds Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 58, Issue 1, January 2005, Pages 17–37, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsi004 Published: 01 January 2005
British Foreign Secretaries Since 1974
1. The Changing Role of the British Foreign Secretary Kevin Theakston 2. James Callaghan, 1974-76 David Allen 3. Anthony Crosland, 1976-77 Oliver J. Daddow 4. David Owen, 1977-79 Fergus Carr 5. Lord Carrington, 1979-82 Harry Bennett 6. Francis Pym, 1982-83 Marl Stuart 7. Geoffrey Howe, 1983-89 David Seawright 8. John Major, 1989 Damian Thwaites 9. Douglas Hurd, 1989-95 Mark Stuart 10. Malcolm Rifkind, 1995-97 Damian Thwaites 11. Robin Cook, 1997-…
Volumes of Influence
Richard Crossman
Richard Crossman's Diaries of a Cabinet Minister (published in three volumes, 1975-77) give a detailed and vivid account of the life of a Cabinet minister and the inner workings of the Whitehall machine and of Harold Wilson's Labour government in the 1960s - coloured, however, by Crossman's own strong personality and opinions. Controversially blowing away conventions of Cabinet secrecy, the diaries paved the way for later moves towards more openn…
Political Skills and Context in Prime Ministerial Leadership in Britain
This article discusses the experience of the four prime ministers who have held office in Britain since 1976 (James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair) in order to explore the scope for, forms of and constraints upon prime ministerial leadership. The focus is on four key factors: party leadership, ideology and aims, political style and skills, and political and economic context. A favorable match of skill and context is cruci…
Bureaucrats and Leadership
Skill in Context
The article compares the efficacy of political leadership of three executive politicians: George Bush, John Major, and Jacques Chirac. Their leadership styles and skills are analyzed according to a model of skill in historical and political content. The three men held office at approximately the same time, following a politically strong predecessor. Their main task was to put their stamp on politics and policy. Bush and Major lost general electio…
Junior ministers in the 1990s
Journal Article Junior ministers in the 1990s Get access K Theakston K Theakston University of Leeds, Leeds, UK Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 52, Issue 2, April 1999, Pages 230–245, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/52.2.230 Published: 01 April 1999
New Labour, New Whitehall
This paper reviews the Labour Party's reaction to developments in the civil service in the 1980s and 1990s under the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and discusses Labour's own plans for Whitehall and the experience of the first five to six months of the new Blair government. It focuses on relations between Labour ministers and the mandarins (including problems of the ‘transition’), the party's plans for freedom of in…
Comparative Biography and Leadership in Whitehall
The article discusses (1) the uses, advantages and drawbacks of the biographical approach in the study of public administration and (2) the application of theories of leadership to senior British civil servants. The argument is advanced that biographical case studies ‐ looking at the personal qualities, careers and achievements of top mandarins ‐ can illuminate the exercise of leadership in Whitehall and the changing role and culture of the civil…
Continuity, Change and Crisis
This paper reviews developments in the British civil service between 1945 and the mid-1990s, highlighting areas of continuity as well as the significant changes there have been. Post-war reform initiatives are assessed, and the argument is advanced that the future of the civil service is now more uncertain than ever before
Leaving the House
This article reports the findings of a large-scale survey investigating the experiences of the large number of MPs who left Parliament following the 2010 General Election. We have found that: the widely held perception that MPs make a smooth transition into lucrative private sector employment after leaving Parliament is largely mistaken; the MPs' expenses scandal has seriously undermined the status of MPs and, as such, may also have made a career…
Rating 20 th -Century British Prime Ministers
This article reports the results of a 2004 survey of academics, specialising in British politics and/or modern British history, asking them to rate all the 20 th -century British prime ministers in terms of their success in office and also asking them to assess the key characteristics of successful prime ministers. The top-ranked PMs were (in order) Attlee, Churchill, Lloyd George and Thatcher. In contrast to the many and regular surveys of Ameri…
Gordon Brown as prime minister
Britain's Administrative Elite
This article is based upon analysis of biographical data of those men and women who reached the rank of Permanent Secretary in the career civil service between 1900 and 1986. Among other matters, the article gives details of the schools and universities attended by Permanent Secretaries, their age on, and mode of, entry to the civil service, and their career pattern within that service, including the number of departments served in, the age of ap…
The Postwar Premiership League
The article reports the results from the latest survey of academic experts polled on the performance of post‐1945 prime ministers. Academic specialists in British politics and history rate Clement Attlee as the best postwar prime minister, with Margaret Thatcher in second place just ahead of Tony Blair in third place. Gordon Brown's stint in Number 10 was the third‐worst since the Second World War, according to the respondents to the survey that …
Skill in Context
The article compares the efficacy of political leadership of three executive politicians: George Bush, John Major, and Jacques Chirac. Their leadership styles and skills are analyzed according to a model of skill in historical and political content. The three men held office at approximately the same time, following a politically strong predecessor. Their main task was to put their stamp on politics and policy. Bush and Major lost general electio…
The Ministerial Foothills
The article assesses the role and influence of junior ministers in the Labour government of 1997–2010, putting them in context against the background of the experience and position of junior ministers in previous British governments. The article also analyses data relating to junior ministers' appointments and promotions under Labour to bring out the patterns of continuity and change in ministerial career paths. Junior ministerial jobs remain key…
Life After Political Death
What comes next after high political and governmental office in contemporary Western representative democracies? The role of former leaders is a neglected issue in the study of political leadership in representative democracies. There is no fixed or predetermined role—former leaders have to work it out for themselves, and what they do depends very much on personal choices and on circumstances. In the era of the career politician, the presidential…
Theresa May’s disjunctive premiership
Theresa May’s premiership is widely acknowledged to have been a failure, but political commentators and the scholarly literature have, thus far, tended to focus on May’s misuse of her agency. This article argues that May’s premiership presents a particularly powerful example of the need to disentangle structure and agency when assessing prime ministerial performance. Drawing upon the work of Stephen Skowronek, it sets out a framework of evaluatin…
Understanding the power of the prime minister
Prime Ministers and the Constitution
Journal Article Prime Ministers and the Constitution: Attlee to Blair Get access Kevin Theakston Kevin Theakston British Government, University of Leeds Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 58, Issue 1, January 2005, Pages 17–37, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsi004 Published: 01 January 2005
Comparative Biography and Leadership in Whitehall
The article discusses (1) the uses, advantages and drawbacks of the biographical approach in the study of public administration and (2) the application of theories of leadership to senior British civil servants. The argument is advanced that biographical case studies ‐ looking at the personal qualities, careers and achievements of top mandarins ‐ can illuminate the exercise of leadership in Whitehall and the changing role and culture of the civil…
Evaluating British prime ministerial performance
This article contributes to the developing literature on prime ministerial performance in the United Kingdom by applying a critical reading of Stephen Skowronek’s account of leadership in ‘political time’ to evaluate David Cameron’s premiership. This, we propose, better understands the inter-relationship of structure and agency in prime ministerial performance than existing frameworks, particularly those based on Greenstein’s and Bulpitt’s approa…
Junior ministers in the 1990s
Journal Article Junior ministers in the 1990s Get access K Theakston K Theakston University of Leeds, Leeds, UK Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 52, Issue 2, April 1999, Pages 230–245, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/52.2.230 Published: 01 April 1999
The Rise of the Novice Cabinet Minister? The Career Trajectories of Cabinet Ministers in British Government from Attlee to Cameron
Some commentators have observed that today's Cabinet ministers are younger and less experienced than their predecessors. To test this claim, we analyse the data for Labour and Conservative appointments to Cabinet since 1945. Although we find some evidence of a decline in average age and prior experience, it is less pronounced than for the party leaders. We then examine the data for junior ministerial appointments, which reveals that there is no t…
Bureaucrats and Leadership
After Number Ten
The article reviews the experience of former British prime ministers in the twentieth century. There is no fixed or predetermined role for former prime ministers. What they do after they leave office depends on personal choices and on circumstances. Some have largely disappeared from the political stage. Others have become active international ‘elder statesmen’. A couple‐Heath and Thatcher‐were embittered ‘models to avoid’. A quarter of the forme…
Political Skills and Context in Prime Ministerial Leadership in Britain
This article discusses the experience of the four prime ministers who have held office in Britain since 1976 (James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair) in order to explore the scope for, forms of and constraints upon prime ministerial leadership. The focus is on four key factors: party leadership, ideology and aims, political style and skills, and political and economic context. A favorable match of skill and context is cruci…
New Labour, New Whitehall
This paper reviews the Labour Party's reaction to developments in the civil service in the 1980s and 1990s under the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and discusses Labour's own plans for Whitehall and the experience of the first five to six months of the new Blair government. It focuses on relations between Labour ministers and the mandarins (including problems of the ‘transition’), the party's plans for freedom of in…
The Use and Abuse of Junior Ministers
Richard Crossman
Richard Crossman's Diaries of a Cabinet Minister (published in three volumes, 1975-77) give a detailed and vivid account of the life of a Cabinet minister and the inner workings of the Whitehall machine and of Harold Wilson's Labour government in the 1960s - coloured, however, by Crossman's own strong personality and opinions. Controversially blowing away conventions of Cabinet secrecy, the diaries paved the way for later moves towards more openn…
Continuity, Change and Crisis
This paper reviews developments in the British civil service between 1945 and the mid-1990s, highlighting areas of continuity as well as the significant changes there have been. Post-war reform initiatives are assessed, and the argument is advanced that the future of the civil service is now more uncertain than ever before
Labour, Thatcher and the Future of the Civil Service
This article is primarily concerned with developments in the civil service since 1979 and the reaction to them of the Labour Party, placing the discussion in the context of the experience of the 1974- 79 Labour government and the long-term evolution of Labour Party attitudes towards the bureaucracy and the machinery of government. Three key issues are examined: the debate about the alleged politicisation of the civil service under Mrs Thatcher an…
The Use and Abuse of Junior Ministers
Britain's Administrative Elite
This article is based upon analysis of biographical data of those men and women who reached the rank of Permanent Secretary in the career civil service between 1900 and 1986. Among other matters, the article gives details of the schools and universities attended by Permanent Secretaries, their age on, and mode of, entry to the civil service, and their career pattern within that service, including the number of departments served in, the age of ap…
Labour, Thatcher and the Future of the Civil Service
This article is primarily concerned with developments in the civil service since 1979 and the reaction to them of the Labour Party, placing the discussion in the context of the experience of the 1974- 79 Labour government and the long-term evolution of Labour Party attitudes towards the bureaucracy and the machinery of government. Three key issues are examined: the debate about the alleged politicisation of the civil service under Mrs Thatcher an…
Continuity, Change and Crisis
This paper reviews developments in the British civil service between 1945 and the mid-1990s, highlighting areas of continuity as well as the significant changes there have been. Post-war reform initiatives are assessed, and the argument is advanced that the future of the civil service is now more uncertain than ever before
Comparative Biography and Leadership in Whitehall
The article discusses (1) the uses, advantages and drawbacks of the biographical approach in the study of public administration and (2) the application of theories of leadership to senior British civil servants. The argument is advanced that biographical case studies ‐ looking at the personal qualities, careers and achievements of top mandarins ‐ can illuminate the exercise of leadership in Whitehall and the changing role and culture of the civil…
New Labour, New Whitehall
This paper reviews the Labour Party's reaction to developments in the civil service in the 1980s and 1990s under the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and discusses Labour's own plans for Whitehall and the experience of the first five to six months of the new Blair government. It focuses on relations between Labour ministers and the mandarins (including problems of the ‘transition’), the party's plans for freedom of in…
Skill in Context
The article compares the efficacy of political leadership of three executive politicians: George Bush, John Major, and Jacques Chirac. Their leadership styles and skills are analyzed according to a model of skill in historical and political content. The three men held office at approximately the same time, following a politically strong predecessor. Their main task was to put their stamp on politics and policy. Bush and Major lost general electio…
Junior ministers in the 1990s
Journal Article Junior ministers in the 1990s Get access K Theakston K Theakston University of Leeds, Leeds, UK Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 52, Issue 2, April 1999, Pages 230–245, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/52.2.230 Published: 01 April 1999
Bureaucrats and Leadership
Political Skills and Context in Prime Ministerial Leadership in Britain
This article discusses the experience of the four prime ministers who have held office in Britain since 1976 (James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair) in order to explore the scope for, forms of and constraints upon prime ministerial leadership. The focus is on four key factors: party leadership, ideology and aims, political style and skills, and political and economic context. A favorable match of skill and context is cruci…
Volumes of Influence
Richard Crossman
Richard Crossman's Diaries of a Cabinet Minister (published in three volumes, 1975-77) give a detailed and vivid account of the life of a Cabinet minister and the inner workings of the Whitehall machine and of Harold Wilson's Labour government in the 1960s - coloured, however, by Crossman's own strong personality and opinions. Controversially blowing away conventions of Cabinet secrecy, the diaries paved the way for later moves towards more openn…
British Foreign Secretaries Since 1974
1. The Changing Role of the British Foreign Secretary Kevin Theakston 2. James Callaghan, 1974-76 David Allen 3. Anthony Crosland, 1976-77 Oliver J. Daddow 4. David Owen, 1977-79 Fergus Carr 5. Lord Carrington, 1979-82 Harry Bennett 6. Francis Pym, 1982-83 Marl Stuart 7. Geoffrey Howe, 1983-89 David Seawright 8. John Major, 1989 Damian Thwaites 9. Douglas Hurd, 1989-95 Mark Stuart 10. Malcolm Rifkind, 1995-97 Damian Thwaites 11. Robin Cook, 1997-…
Prime Ministers and the Constitution
Journal Article Prime Ministers and the Constitution: Attlee to Blair Get access Kevin Theakston Kevin Theakston British Government, University of Leeds Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 58, Issue 1, January 2005, Pages 17–37, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsi004 Published: 01 January 2005
Rating 20 th -Century British Prime Ministers
This article reports the results of a 2004 survey of academics, specialising in British politics and/or modern British history, asking them to rate all the 20 th -century British prime ministers in terms of their success in office and also asking them to assess the key characteristics of successful prime ministers. The top-ranked PMs were (in order) Attlee, Churchill, Lloyd George and Thatcher. In contrast to the many and regular surveys of Ameri…
After Number Ten
The article reviews the experience of former British prime ministers in the twentieth century. There is no fixed or predetermined role for former prime ministers. What they do after they leave office depends on personal choices and on circumstances. Some have largely disappeared from the political stage. Others have become active international ‘elder statesmen’. A couple‐Heath and Thatcher‐were embittered ‘models to avoid’. A quarter of the forme…
Using History, Making British Policy
Gordon Brown as prime minister
The Postwar Premiership League
The article reports the results from the latest survey of academic experts polled on the performance of post‐1945 prime ministers. Academic specialists in British politics and history rate Clement Attlee as the best postwar prime minister, with Margaret Thatcher in second place just ahead of Tony Blair in third place. Gordon Brown's stint in Number 10 was the third‐worst since the Second World War, according to the respondents to the survey that …
Life After Political Death
What comes next after high political and governmental office in contemporary Western representative democracies? The role of former leaders is a neglected issue in the study of political leadership in representative democracies. There is no fixed or predetermined role—former leaders have to work it out for themselves, and what they do depends very much on personal choices and on circumstances. In the era of the career politician, the presidential…
The Rise of the Novice Cabinet Minister? The Career Trajectories of Cabinet Ministers in British Government from Attlee to Cameron
Some commentators have observed that today's Cabinet ministers are younger and less experienced than their predecessors. To test this claim, we analyse the data for Labour and Conservative appointments to Cabinet since 1945. Although we find some evidence of a decline in average age and prior experience, it is less pronounced than for the party leaders. We then examine the data for junior ministerial appointments, which reveals that there is no t…
The Ministerial Foothills
The article assesses the role and influence of junior ministers in the Labour government of 1997–2010, putting them in context against the background of the experience and position of junior ministers in previous British governments. The article also analyses data relating to junior ministers' appointments and promotions under Labour to bring out the patterns of continuity and change in ministerial career paths. Junior ministerial jobs remain key…
Doing God” in Number 10
This article analyses British prime ministers' use of religious language and their own religious beliefs in their political rhetoric. This is used to justify policy, support their ideological positions, present a public persona, and cultivate their personal ethical appeal and credibility as values-driven political leaders. The focus is on the use and the nature of the religious arguments of Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Ca…
Evaluating British prime ministerial performance
This article contributes to the developing literature on prime ministerial performance in the United Kingdom by applying a critical reading of Stephen Skowronek’s account of leadership in ‘political time’ to evaluate David Cameron’s premiership. This, we propose, better understands the inter-relationship of structure and agency in prime ministerial performance than existing frameworks, particularly those based on Greenstein’s and Bulpitt’s approa…
Leaving the House
This article reports the findings of a large-scale survey investigating the experiences of the large number of MPs who left Parliament following the 2010 General Election. We have found that: the widely held perception that MPs make a smooth transition into lucrative private sector employment after leaving Parliament is largely mistaken; the MPs' expenses scandal has seriously undermined the status of MPs and, as such, may also have made a career…
Political science (27 obras) · Political and Economic history of UK and US (23 obras) · Law (22 obras) · Politics (20 obras) · Sociology (19 obras) · Law (18 obras) · Public Administration (15 obras) · Public Administration (12 obras) · Economics (10 obras) · History (9 obras)