The Civil Service and Intergovernmental Relations in the Post-Devolution UK
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12607248 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard Parry (0000-0003-4572-4849, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 285-302 |
| Publication date | 2012-04-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The British Journal of Politics and International Relations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-1481 • E-ISSN: 1467-856X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-856x.2011.00498.x |
| OpenAlex | W2095884316 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 10 |
The civil service, as an ‘apolitical’ actor, may supply a significant facilitating role in intergovernmental relations. This is especially the case in the UK, where even the most senior civil servants are not politically appointed and remain in office when their political masters change party colours. Furthermore, civil servants who work for the Scottish or Welsh governments are part of a unified (British) Home Civil Service. As such they have been socialised in and respect similar operating procedures, which also encompass Northern Ireland despite its independent civil service. These factors have contributed to oil (lubricate) and glue (hold together) intergovernmental relations. Experience since 1999 is of a civil service accommodating well to various kinds of party incongruity and of working successfully with nationalists in government. The unified service seems well-entrenched, including in a 2010 UK statute, and relationships at official level on financial matters have become particularly important in times of austerity. In the longer term the ‘interdepartmental’ mode of working may be harder to sustain as operating procedures set up in a path-dependent way from before 1999 erode as more civil servants are externally recruited and contact with Whitehall departments is reduced. It is even possible to envisage a reversal of attitude in which the devolved administrations value the civil service link to Whitehall more than does the UK government
Austerity · Civil servants · Coalition government · Devolution (biology · Economics · Economy · Government (linguistics · Political science · Politics · Service (business · Sociology · Welsh · Work (physics · Engineering · Irish and British Studies · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Public Administration · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Intergovernmental Relations in Divided Societies
Explaining Intergovernmental Coordination during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Policy Convergence, Divergence and Communities
Performing Welsh Government 1999–2016
Still better together? Purpose and power in intergovernmental councils in the UK
Coordinación intergubernamental en España vista por la alta función pública del Estado
Explaining bureaucratic power in intergovernmental relations
Devolution Commissions in the shadow of Whitehall
UK devolution in the shadow of hierarchy? Intergovernmental relations and party politics
Devolution and the Limits of Tory Statecraft
Devolution and the civil service
Who else would we speak to?’ National Policy Networks in post-devolution Britain
What can UK public administration learn from the devolved nations
A policy on the move? Spatial planning and State Actors in the post-devolutionary UK and Ireland
The Politics of Public Service Bargains
The British Civil Service
Bureau Shuffling? The Review of Public Administration in Northern Ireland
Has the Whitehall Model survived
A New Elite? Politicians and Civil Servants in Scotland after Devolution
The Civil Service and Intergovernmental Relations
Devolution, Integration and Modernisation in the United Kingdom Civil Service
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2022 (11) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |