THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THATCHER GOVERNMENT'S ‘GRAND STRATEGY’ FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE: A PUBLIC POLICY PERSPECTIVE

1 September 1984

journal article
Published by Wiley in Public Administration

Vol. 62 (3) , 322-335
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1984.tb00566.x

Abstract

Since the Thatcher Government came to office, the policies which it has pursued towards the civil service have been characterized by its determination to emphasize political control over the work of government departments and to‘de‐privilege’ the civil service. The paper traces and evaluates the development of the Conservative Government's‘grand strategy’ for the civil service which was eventually given the form of the financial management initiative in 1982, an attempt to universalize MINIS and institutionalize Raynerism. Among other things, this policy study considers the cuts in civil service numbers and the changes in its hierarchy, the dismantling of the Priestley pay system, the civil service strike of 1981, and the disbanding of the Civil Service Department, involving as it did the dismissal of the Head of the Home Civil Service.

Keywords

PUBLIC POLICY

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:

COMPROMISE WITH THE MARKET: THE MEGAW REPORT ON CIVIL SERVICE PAY 1982
Public Administration, 1983
The Civil Service: Seven Years after Fulton
Public Administration, 1976