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What is New About Governance and Why Does it Matter?
Citation
Rhodes, RAW, What is New About Governance and Why Does it Matter?, Governing Europe, Oxford University Press, J Hayward and A Menon (ed), Oxford, pp. 61-73. ISBN 0-19-925015-4 (2003) [Research Book Chapter]
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DOI: doi:10.1093/0199250154.001.0001
Abstract
This chapter defends the ‘private patois of political science’, revisiting the notions of:
governance, the core executive, hollowing out, and the differentiated polity. There are
already formal academic statements aplenty.1 I want to provide an informal guide to
one way of understanding British government; to what we are trying to understand
and how we understand it. I do so because I am convinced the old vocabulary for
describing Westminster and Whitehall is at best a partial description of how British
government works.We need a new language to capture the changes which have and
are taking place. And here lies both a puzzle and a danger. The puzzle is that the new
vocabulary is not acceptable until approved by everyday use but it cannot be so
approved until we start using it. The danger in this defence is that I simplify the ideas
to make them clear to the point where I do not accept my own analysis.
In defending this patois, my objective is not to repair the wounded pride of political
science. It matters how we understand British government. Such understandings
are not the privilege of the chattering classes. If our existing map of our institutions and how they work is faulty, we mislead citizens and undermine representative
democracy. Such maps are about how we are governed and politicians with faulty
maps will make promises they cannot keep, not because they are venal, but because,
unwittingly, they travel in the wrong direction. I am trying to make corrections to the
existing map of British government so citizens and politicians alike know what journeys
they can and cannot take.
Item Details
Item Type: | Research Book Chapter |
---|---|
Research Division: | Human Society |
Research Group: | Policy and administration |
Research Field: | Public administration |
Objective Division: | Law, Politics and Community Services |
Objective Group: | Government and politics |
Objective Field: | Government and politics not elsewhere classified |
UTAS Author: | Rhodes, RAW (Professor Rod Rhodes) |
ID Code: | 58797 |
Year Published: | 2003 |
Deposited By: | Government |
Deposited On: | 2009-10-29 |
Last Modified: | 2010-07-20 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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