Showing papers on "Coalition government published in 2012"

Local Governance under the Coalition Government: Austerity, Localism and the ‘Big Society’

Abstract: The Coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, formally created on 11th May 2010, has introduced a range of initiatives which affect local governance, from the announcement of a new Localism Bill through to the abolition of the Audit Commission and the arrival of the ‘Big Society’ agenda. This article reviews the key policy announcements of the Coalition's first year and analyses the underlying themes and trends which are emerging. It argues that the Coalition's reforms do show traces of an ideological commitment to localism and a new understanding of local self-government; there is an ideological agenda which has the potential to deliver a radically different form of local governance. However, the reform process is far from coherent and the potential for radical change is heavily constrained by: conflicts in Conservative thinking and the failure of the Liberal Democrats to assert their own ideology; the political expediency of budget cuts during an era of austerity and; the probl...

Telling stories of 21st century welfare: The UK Coalition government and the neo-liberal discourse of worklessness and dependency

Abstract: Policy documents are a useful source for understanding the privileging of particular ideological and policy preferences (Scrase and Ockwell, 2010) and how the language and imagery may help to construct society’s assumptions, values and beliefs. This article examines how the UK Coalition government’s 2010 Green Paper, 21st Century Welfare, and the White Paper, Universal Credit: Welfare that Works, assist in constructing a discourse about social security that favours a renewal and deepening of neo-liberalization in the context of threats to its hegemony. The documents marginalize the structural aspects of persistent unemployment and poverty by transforming these into individual pathologies of benefit dependency and worklessness. The consequence is that familiar neo-liberal policy measures favouring the intensification of punitive conditionality and economic rationality can be portrayed as new and innovative solutions to address Britain’s supposedly broken society and restore economic competitiveness.

Root and Branch Restructuring to Achieve Major Cuts: The Social Policy Programme of the 2010 UK Coalition Government

Abstract: The 2010 Coalition has set itself the challenge of combining an unprecedentedly rapid and profound retrenchment with a fundamental restructuring of the public sector, both to be accomplished within five years. The immediate justification is a presumed need to reduce national indebtedness. The longer-term goal is to shrink the state, free up the market and set British political economy on a new course. The programme has encountered a number of set-backs and some elements appear more likely to be realized than others. This article considers the objectives of the Coalition programme and the likely outcomes, using evidence from a number of sources including comparisons with the experience of retrenchment elsewhere and analysis of previous rounds of public spending cut-backs.

The Just’s Umbrella: Austerity and the Big Society in Coalition policy and beyond:

Abstract: The formation of the Coalition government in 2010 has resulted in unprecedented spending cuts presented as necessary austerity, together with the promotion of the ‘Big Society’ as the panacea for social ills. This article argues that the cuts continue a thirty-year process of redistribution to the rich. Rather than being a necessary response to the economic crisis, they constitute a neo-liberal shock doctrine, forcing through punitive policies which undermine the collective provision against risk that constitutes the ‘just’s umbrella’. However, arguments for reduced consumption and self-organization in civil society have purchase partly because of real needs for sustainable development and human well-being. Reading austerity and the Big Society through a ‘hermeneutics of faith’ rather than a ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’ opens up the utopian possibility of thinking holistically about an alternative, equitable, sustainable future radically different from that offered by conventional politics.

Fantasies of empowerment: mapping neoliberal discourse in the coalition government’s schools policy

Abstract: The swift nature of school reform enacted by the new Conservative-led coalition government has sparked debate over the future of state education in Britain. While the government rhetoric suggests a decisive break with past policies, there is evidence to suggest that these reforms constitute the next stage of a long revolution in education reform, centred around neoliberal market discourse. In the following paper, I examine the current government’s education policy discourse and, by employing techniques of post-structuralist discourse analysis, reveal the government’s attempts to rearticulate education around the logics of market, responsibilisation and self-esteem, which act to shift responsibility for social problems from the state to the individual. Furthermore, I shall argue that such rearticulation has been coupled with an ideological fantasy of ‘empowerment’, which conceals the subordination of actors to these neoliberal logics by constituting the parent and, more recently, the teacher as powerful ac...

The end of the UK’s liberal collectivist social model? The implications of the coalition government’s policy during the austerity crisis

Abstract: This paper reviews change and continuity in social policy up to summer 2011, contrasting the liberal collectivist approach of New Labour with the reinforced neoliberalism of the coalition government. Given the ongoing uncertainty of economic conditions and the obvious difficulty of forecasting the stability of coalition policy, it is not possible to arrive at a firm conclusion as to the sustainability of the recent change of policy direction. Nevertheless, in a critical assessment of policy in three areas—labour market governance, the life course and the public sector—the paper argues that the UK is witnessing an intensified neoliberal policy emphasis, a redrawing or abolition of minimum standards and failures to meet changing patterns of social needs. While the collectivist elements of New Labour’s social policy approach were contradictory in many respects, the coalition government through a withdrawal of the state and obtuse pronouncements about the big society is seeking to embed in the UK a stronger neoliberal approach to social policy. Flawed assumptions about the scope for traditional families and localised big society programmes to compensate for state withdrawal mean the trajectory of change is not clear-cut; preferences for collectivist and publicly accountable solutions to issues of social policy are unlikely to be easily eroded. However, ongoing policy change during the austerity crisis is already inflicting radical change with adverse impacts upon many groups of society.

Making sense of the ‘Big Society’: Social work and the moral order:

Abstract: • Summary: This article analyses the ‘Big Society’ agenda of the UK coalition government as a response to New Labour’s regulation of society through incentives, contracts, targets and micro-management.• Findings: It argues that two sides of the programme are relevant for social work. Initially, most attention has understandably focused on the public spending cuts – rolling back the state and transferring responsibilities to voluntary organizations. But in the longer term, of equal significance will be its emphasis on increased citizen participation, empowered communities and collective action.• Applications: This agenda poses challenges and opportunities for a practice which is less individualistic, formal and desk-bound; but it also raises issues about the wider solidarities upon which equality and social justice depend.

Joined-Up Government and the Challenges to Accounting and Accountability Researchers

Abstract: Collaborative working between public sector bodies in the UK, sometimes involving partnerships with private sector and not-for-profit organisations, was promoted heavily by the Labour Government (1997–2010) under what is sometimes labelled ‘Joined-Up Government’. The Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Government, elected in 2010, appears likely to continue to promote such policies. The objective of this paper is to raise awareness of what may be seen as an important and developing agenda in public services in which accounting and accountability researchers are barely visible. The paper reviews the meanings and motivations of joined-up government and its development in the UK. A number of challenges are presented, including the need to refocus research from an entity to a network perspective; to assess whether joined-up government delivers value-for-money services; to join the debate on the development of related accounting techniques; to seek precision in specifying accountability mechanisms and to adapt our research methods.

Crisis social policy and the resilience of the concept of community

Abstract: This paper considers the continuing resilience of the notion of community in social policy making and wider political commentary in the contemporary UK. Focusing in particular on the ways in which community is negatively and positively invoked in narratives of the ‘big’ and ‘broken’ societies, it considers why the notion of community, so popular with the previous Labour government, continues to enchant the present Coalition government and has been given added resonance in the context of the economic crisis and of the ‘austerity’ measures adopted by the UK coalition government. The paper argues that placing community at the heart of current welfare provision illuminates a number of tensions in UK government’s policy-making agenda. Informed by a discussion of Liverpool - once one of the big society ‘laboratories’ - we highlight the contradictions between top-down, depoliticized understandings of community and the types of community engagement and participation that are to be found in poor, disadvantaged communities in particular. Such communities are also where the impact of UK government ‘austerity’ measures are being most keenly felt.

‘Community cohesion’: Reflections on a flawed paradigm:

Abstract: This paper interrogates a concept at the core of a social policy agenda that has dominated thinking in the UK over the past decade. It argues that the notion of ‘community cohesion’ is based on a fundamentally flawed interpretation of the sources of tension and conflict in Britain’s towns and cities. It overly ethnicizes societal divisions and essentializes ethnicity. Examining the development of government policy since 2001 the paper shows that the result has been a predominantly culturalist agenda that obscures key sources of division, most notably those related to social class and material inequality. It is argued that the hegemonic status of this policy stream has also undermined the equalities agenda. The paper concludes with a reflection on the implications of the emergence of a Conservative-led coalition government in May 2010.

Adam Smith or Machiavelli? Political incentives for contracting out local public services

Abstract: Why do some local governments deliver public services directly while others rely on providers from the private sector? Previous literature on local contracting out and on the privatization of state-owned enterprises have offered two competing interpretations on why center-right governments rely more on private providers. Some maintain that center-right politicians contract out more because, like Adam Smith, they believe in market competition. Others claim that center-right politicians use privatization in a Machiavellian fashion; it is used as a strategy to retain power, by ‘purchasing’ the electoral support of certain constituencies. Using a unique dataset, which includes the political attitudes of over 8,000 Swedish local politicians from 290 municipalities for a period of 10 years, this paper tests these ideological predictions together with additional political economy factors which have been overlooked in previous studies, such as the number of veto players. Results first indicate support for the Machiavellian interpretation, as contracting out increases with electoral competition. Second, irrespective of ideological concerns, municipalities with more veto players in the coalition government contract out fewer services.

Liberal conservatism, vocationalism and further education in England

Abstract: Focusing on vocational learning in the English further education (FE) sector and situating it within its social, political and historical context, this paper provides an overview of English attitudes towards the vocational and its subordinate status in relation to ‘academic’ education. It outlines the development of FE in England, describing its peculiarly working-class heritage, and discusses how the nature of the sector has changed against the backdrop of increasing global competition and the restructuring of the UK economy since the 1970s. The paper goes on to outline particular forms of vocationalism found in FE in England and considers some of the limitations of ‘progressive’ vocationalism and of competence based education and training. Following this, there is a discussion of emerging themes for vocational education and training, and the FE sector in particular, under the UK Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government elected in 2010. Continuities and fractures with established practice are c...

A policy sociology reflection on school reform in England: from the ‘Third Way’ to the ‘Big Society’

Abstract: This article presents a policy sociology reflection on Bernard Barker's book, The Pendulum Swings: Transforming School Reform. The book represents Barker's attempt to intervene in education policy during the lead-up to the 2010 UK general election and is framed by what he imagined might be possible under a new Conservative government. Barker draws inspiration from the Red Tory communitarian position articulated by Phillip Blond. In hindsight, we are less sanguine about these possibilities in the context of the Coalition government and its ongoing response to the ongoing financial crises. Indeed, what has emerged is a rearticulated neo-liberalism in the guise of ‘Big Society’ rhetoric. We agree with Barker's critical deconstruction of the five illusions underpinning New Labour schooling policy, but argue for a broader agenda of redistribution, both in social policy and with respect to schools. Policy needs to recognise and support teachers and good pedagogies, and we also see a pressing need to rethink ric...

The Low Road to Basic Income? Tax-Benefit Integration in the UK

Abstract: Reform of the tax-benefit system is on the political agenda in the UK, following the election of a coalition government in May 2010. The proposals for a partial integration of the two systems, set out by the Centre for Social Justice in 2009, and endorsed by the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, have some features of a basic income scheme. This article explores some of the common origins of the basic income principle and the ideas informing the ‘Big Society’, and examines how both traditions opposed the social insurance approach to income maintenance. It asks whether this new reform initiative will discredit basic income, or usher in the principle by the back door.

Cameron as Prime Minister: the intra-executive politics of Britain's coalition government

Abstract: Forming a coalition involves compromise, so a prime minister heading up a coalition government, even one as predominant a party leader as David Cameron, should not be as powerful as a prime minister leading a single-party government. Cameron has still to work with and through ministers from his own party, but has also to work with and through Liberal Democrat ministers; not least the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg. The relationship between the prime minister and his deputy is unchartered territory for recent academic study of the British prime minister. This article explores how Cameron and Clegg operate within both Whitehall and Westminster: the cabinet arrangements, the prime minister's patronage, advisory resources and more informal mechanisms. Cameron and Clegg both possess institutional and personal resources, but Cameron remains the predominant resource-rich actor, so at this stage in the coalition government we can observe that no formal, substantial change in the role of prime minister has been enacted. Cameron's predominance, by leading a coalition, is partially constrained by Clegg, but he too constrains Clegg. This prime minister, then, can be predominant even when he is constrained in significant ways by the imperatives of coalition government. Cameron is presently no more constrained than a prime minister who is faced with a pre-eminent intra-party rival with a significant power base.

The Big Society: a new policy environment for the third sector?

Abstract: This Working Paper updates the analysis of the Coalition government’s Big Society policy agenda first published in 2010. It explores the policy context for the Big Society initiative and the key features of the policy programme developed by the Coalition since 2010. It then outlines some of the contradictions and challenges within this policy programme, and for the relations between the third sector and the state more generally. It is also pointed out that the Big Society is an English political discourse with different policy developments now taking place within the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. An earlier version of this paper was published in Voluntary Sector Review, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 379-90. This version will also be published as a chapter in The Welfare State Reader, 3rd edition, F. Castles, I. Nauman and C. Pierson (eds.) Polity Press, 2012.

Cameron and the conservatives : the transition to coalition government

Abstract: Introduction T.Heppell & D.Seawright Understanding Conservative Modernisation C.Byrne , E.Foster & P.Kerr The Conservative Election Campaign D.Seawright The Conservatives and the Electorate D.Denver Economic Policy A.Gamble European Policy P.Lynch Immigration Policy T.Bale & J.Hampshire Territorial Politics N.Randall & D.Seawright Foreign Policy V.Honeyman Fixing Broken Britain R.Hayton Women and Feminisation V.Bryson Liberal Conservatism: Ideological Coherence? S.McAa Coalition Cohesion P.Norton David Cameron as Prime Minister K.Theakston Labour in Opposition T.Heppell & M.Hill Conclusion T.Heppell & D.Seawright

The Australian Welfare State and the Neoliberalism Thesis

Abstract: This paper uses Australian Bureau of Statistics fiscal incidence figures to track trends in the Australian welfare state across the period 1984 to 2004. Its general aim is to assess the proposition that recent governments have been ‘grave-diggers’ of the welfare state in Australia. More specifically, it tracks the overall level of social expenditure at the household level and the degree of vertical redistribution between households. Since the period in question covers twelve years of Labor and eight years of Coalition government in Canberra, the authors also seek evidence of political effect in welfare state trends. Their general conclusion is that far from succumbing to neoliberalism, the Australian welfare state became if anything even larger over this period. Neither bipartisan economic liberalisation, nor competing party welfare policies, made much difference to the welfare state when viewed through a fiscal incidence lens.

Coalition Government and Party Mandate: How Coalition Agreements Constrain Ministerial Action

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Theorizing coalition agreements 3. Methodological choices 4. case study one: Germany (by Catherine Moury and Mark Ferguson) 5. case study two: Belgium 6. case study three: the Netherlands (by Catherine Moury and Arco Timmermans) 7. case study four: Italy 8. Coalition agreements and Cabinet decision-making in four countries 9. Explaining variation across cases: Preliminary Findings 10. Conclusion

Democracy, Compromise and the Representation Paradox: Coalition Government and Political Integrity

Abstract: Coalitions are often condemned as undemocratic and unprincipled because of the compromises they involve. Politicians are accused of betraying the commitments they made during the election. Paradoxically, proponents of this view suggest that if compromises are to be made they should be pragmatic and based on policy rather than principle. This article disputes this thesis and defends compromise as both principled and democratic. The first section distinguishes a shallow compromise based on the maximal satisfaction of exogenously defined preferences from a deep compromise resulting from reasoning on principle, and argues it proves impossible to avoid the latter. The second section suggests that the obligation to compromise forms part of the ethos of democracy, whereby citizens must agree despite their disagreements. The third section concludes by showing that while representatives will almost certainly betray their electoral mandate if obliged to make only shallow compromises, they can legitimately engage in deep compromises for their voters when they reason as they do.

The Politics of Coalition: How the Conservative - Liberal Democrat Government Works

Abstract: 1. Introduction: Why Study the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition? Ben Yong 2. The Experience of Coalition: Domestic and Abroad Eimear O'Casey 3. Formation of the Coalition Ben Yong 4. How the Coalition Works at the Centre Robert Hazell 5. Departments: Ministers and the Civil Service Peter Waller 6. The Coalition in Parliament Ben Yong 7. The Political Parties 1 Ben Yong 8. The Coalition and the Media Brian Walker 9. Case Study I: Constitutional Reform Robert Hazell 10. Case Studies II: Tuition Fees, NHS Reform, and Nuclear Policy Peter Waller and Ben Yong 11. Lessons for the Future Robert Hazell Appendices Appendix 1: Party Breakdown of the Coalition Agreements Appendix 2: Opinion Polls on the Coalition and the Political Parties, 2010-11 Appendix 3: Coalition Government Chronology, 2010-11 Appendix 4: Coalition Agreement for Stability and Reform Appendix 5: Letter from Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell on Coalition Government Appendix 6: Guidance on Liaison between Departments and Coalition Backbenchers, July 2010 Appendix 7: No 10 Policy and Implementation Unit: Who's Who, Summer 2011 Appendix 8: Glossary

The 2010 Regional Election in Catalonia: A Multilevel Account in an Age of Economic Crisis

Abstract: This paper examines the context, actors, campaign, and results of the Catalan election of 2010, which took place in a context of economic recession and growing political discontent. I argue that certain circumstances concurred in this particular contest to enhance the influence of factors pertaining to the first-order (i.e. national) arena as compared with the influence of second-order (i.e. region specific) factors. As a result, regional incumbent support was found to be largely driven by evaluations of national incumbent performance, which worked against the tripartite coalition government.

The Cambusters: The Conservative European Union Referendum Rebellion of October 2011

Abstract: The backbench rebellion that hit the Coalition government in October 2011 was one of the largest Commons revolts of the postwar era, on any issue. But it was not just its size that was noteworthy. This article outlines ten points about the origins of the vote, its timing, its composition, and the nature of the divisions it revealed. Facilitated by recent procedural innovations in the Commons, the rebellion was both evidence of a longer-term rise in dissent amongst MPs of all parties, as well as other medium-and short-term factors within the Conservative party. It leaves the Prime Minister caught in an impossible triangle, attempting to satisfy his pro-European Liberal Democrat partners in the Coalition, while keeping his Euro-sceptic rebels happy, and yet retaining enough credibility in European capitals to negotiate successfully.

LEPs - living up to the hype? The changing framework for regional economic development and localism in the UK

Abstract: From when the idea of local enterprise partnerships was first floated in the run-up to the May 2010 general election, there has been fervent discussion and steadfast work by the Coalition government to replace the nine regional development agencies of England with the new LEPS. Vince Cable MP called the decision to abolish the RDAs the Coalition’s “Maoist moment”. Thirteen years of work to establish a comprehensive system of regional development for England has since been abolished and abandoned. The philosophy and rationale for the establishment of the RDAs was set out in the 1997 white paper Building Partnerships for Prosperity: Sustainability, Growth, Competitiveness and Employment in the English Regions. Their main promoter was John Prescott MP, then deputy prime minister under the Blair government. This chapter examines whether LEPs are living up to the hype.

Back to the Local? Recalibrating the Regional Tier of Governance in England

Abstract: By contrast to the far-reaching devolution settlements elsewhere in the UK, political agreement on the governance of England outside London remains unsettled. There is cross- party consensus on the need to 'decentre down' authority to regions and localities, but limited agreement on how this should be achieved. This paper explores the welter of initiatives adopted by the recent Labour government that were ostensibly designed to make the meso-level of governance more coherent, accountable and responsive to meeting territorial priorities. Second, it explores the current Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition's programme of reform that involves the elimination of Labour's regional institutional architecture and is intended to restore powers to local government and communities and promote local authority co-operation around sub-regions. Labour's reforms were ineffective in achieving any substantial transfer of authority away from Whitehall and, given the Coalition's plans to cut public expenditure, the likelihood of any significant recalibration in central-local relations also appears improbable.

The political crisis in belgium (2007–2011): a federal system without federal loyalty

Abstract: Since 2007, Belgium has been confronted with an ongoing political crisis. As the two language communities in the country grow further apart, it becomes increasingly difficult to form a coalition government with an electoral system that does not provide any incentives for federal loyalty. During the lengthy coalition negotiations a caretaker government had implemented European policies, which might provide a form of economic stability, but does provoke questions about democratic legitimacy and accountability, while questions have also been voiced about the long-term stability of the Belgian political system.

Planning for growth? The implications of localism for ‘Science Vale’, Oxfordshire, UK

Abstract: This article provides a preliminary examination of the emerging implications of UK Coalition Government planning policy as a key part of its growth agenda. Attention is directed in particular to the adoption of localism in planning policy, which is presented by the Coalition as a vital key to unlock economic growth. The empirical focus is on the ‘Science Vale UK’ (SVUK) area of southern Oxfordshire, a major concentration of the hi-tech, science-based economy that the Coalition government sees as pivotal to future economic development. However, the expansion of such areas often generates significant challenges, particularly in the dispersed, semi-rural environment which characterises much of the South East of England. In light of the early evidence from SVUK, the article speculates that the implications of localism for planning policy will be more complex than has been portrayed by advocates and critics alike, but that localism also faces ongoing strategic challenges in managing and achieving growth in thi...

Political Systems and Criminal Justice: The Prisoners' Dilemma After the Coalition

Abstract: In this article, building on an argument sketched in my The Prisoners' Dilemma (2008), I explore the ways in which the institutional structure of political systems shapes the politics of criminal justice. In particular, I set out an argument as to why coalition politics might be thought, other things being equal, to facilitate stability and moderation in criminal justice policy. In the second part of the article, I examine some recent case studies in the impact of coalition politics on criminal justice policy-making, and show how a close analysis of the move to proportional representation in New Zealand and Scotland, and the unusual period of coalition government at Westminster, refines our understanding of the ways in which institutional arrangements such as the electoral system, the party system and the dynamics of bargaining under conditions of coalition government affect the environment for criminal justice policy-making. In the final section, I engage in some predictions about the likely fate of penal moderation under coalition politics in England and Wales.