Joined-Up Government and the Civil Service

This chapter discusses joined-up government and its effect on the civil service. The focus is on the different silo mentalities which are used to connote not being joined-up. In this chapter particular attention is given to the indiscriminate attack on silo and the implication that ‘everyone is guilty’ which leads to the avoidance of careful diagnosis of problems. Discussed herein are the different types of silo mentalities that exit on the basis of some of the academic literature. The chapter also discusses the different consequences that might arise from the silos including the consequences brought about by the silos into the typology of patterns of non-joined-up government. The chapter ends with a discussion on the implications of this typology to the civil service reform including the possible positive aspects of these implications.

Joined-Up Government and Cabinet Government

This chapter discusses the diverging and converging points of the joined-up and the cabinet government. The chapter provides a background on the changes that have been ensued since the introduction of the joined-up government. In the first few sections of the chapter, the focus is on the importance of joined-up government, the failures that have graced joined-up government, the new institutions that have been created, and the improvements and innovations needed for the machinery of joined-up government. Particular focus is given on the five stages of policy development which are crucial in pinpointing the problems as well as the aspects needed for the joining-up horizontally. These five stages include: policy formation; public representation and a managerial explanation; good legislation; delivery; and major institutional or organizational innovation.

Joined-Up Government for Local and Regional Institutions

Joined-up government seems to be able to present itself in various forms of being understood in several ways. It is therefore subject to various interpretations and divergent views. Some contend that joined-up government is inherently centralizing hence it is disadvantageous for the devolved units of the government, some on the other hand argue that joined-up government is not essentially centralizing. This chapter evaluates New Labour's initial efforts at stimulating joining-up at the local level by detailing the rise of the multitude partnership bodies since New Labour rose into power. The chapter also discusses the top-down-driven policy style that New Labour adopted in their efforts for partnerships. This style caused chaotic repercussions in the local and regional governance. Discussed as well in the chapter are the ways in which New Labour tried to localize joined-up government. The first method was the premise of adopting autonomy for the local government to pursue community leadership at the local level while the second method proposed earned autonomy or constrained discretion wherein the local government can lead and yet be under the guidance of the central government. Both of these models of governance are considered here to determine whether they can be institutionalized. The last section of the chapter presents a discussion on the seemingly centralizing nature of joined-up government.

JASP Meets JUG: Lessons of the 1975 Joint Approach to Social Policy for Joined-Up Government

This chapter probes the points and lessons derived from the 1975 Joint Approach to Social Policy (JASP) for the joined-up government. For although JASP was effectively dead despite the high patronage and enthusiasm for it, the notion of coordination and integration was still very much alive. This chapter hence looks into the implementation of the JASP both at the central and local level in the hopes of determining factors which can inhibit or promote coordination. Presented in the chapter is a summary of the main points and conclusions derived from the careful analysis of the JASP where it has been found out that achieving joined-up government is a long overhaul if presented in a quick manner and its good points not exploited outside the boundaries of the academic community.

Introduction

‘Joined-up government’ has been a topic of important discussion in the early twenty-first century as much as it was in the end of the twentieth century. Reinventing government was a move towards the ‘new public management’ which revolved on the importance to stimulate a business situation in the government and to apply the disciplines of the market to the public sector. The joined-up government on the other hand advocated a more holistic approach. It not only sought to apply the logic of economics but also the insights of other social sciences such as sociology and cultural theory to reform and change public service. This book focuses on the joined-up government strategy of the UK government. This strategy sought not only to bring together the government departments and agencies but also a number of various private and voluntary bodies for a common goal. The chapters in this book discusses the various barriers to the joined-up government such as contrasting perspectives of the central and local government, the conflicting departmental interests, and the diverging interests of the professionals.

Joined-Up Government in the West beyond Britain: A Provisional Assessment

In many western countries, politicians and senior civil servants are working on the improvement of the coordination and integration of the activities of many government departments and agencies. This chapter offers some hypotheses that determine the differences in the style of governments in some countries in terms of their coordination and integration or ‘joining-up’ styles. In this chapter, particular attention is directed on the difficult relationship relating to cross-national trends in horizontal coordination and integration within the client level and privacy concerns. The chapter also offers a short discussion on the ways in which horizontal relationships might be arranged between regulators with different responsibilities within the same jurisdiction for different aspects of work in the same organizations. Before offering a better explanation of the differences in the styles of coordination and integration between countries, the chapter considers some explanations derived from literatures on the subject of ‘joined-up’ government that accept or reject rationales that support or fail to explain the geographical variance of joining-up. After taking a look at some prevailing explanations on the varying styles of coordination and integration, the chapter presents the neo-Durkheimian institutionalist explanation which is non-circular and which provides a more detailed account of the geographical and historical differences of ‘joined-up’ government. The chapter concludes with some provisional conclusions on the politics of administrative coordination and the politics of ‘joined-up’ government.

The Idea of Joined-Up Government: A Historical Perspective

Joined-up government is a new term coined in the 1990s for an old administrative doctrine called ‘coordination’. In a general sense, coordination in the old administrative doctrine suggests that all of the parts of the executive government should be interconnected and complementary to one another. The aim of coordination in the government is to be able to present a single face to the people and to operate as a single unit on multiple yet interrelated problems. Historically, the idea and concept of government coordination is hard to trace as it is a nebulous one. It appears in several disciplinary literatures and spans many institutional and social domains. This chapter does not offer a historical outline of the term ‘joined-up term’ or of broader coordination doctrines in the government, rather it presents questions from a comparative-historical questions. The first question examines old and new aspects of the Blair New Labour doctrine of joined-up government. The second query tackles from an historical perspective some of the principal means that have been advanced for the linking of the parts of the executive government. The last question addresses the counter-doctrines to the idea of joined-up government.

Joined-Up Government: Past, Present, and Future

The idea of ‘joined-up’ government which was first used by Tony Blair in 1997 has become a significant aspect of modern UK government. It has changed and influenced how structures are organized, how targets are set, how budgets are allocated and how the daily work of local agencies and professions are performed. The main reason for the interest in the concept of ‘joined-up’ government has been the recognition that some problems of the government do not fit into the neat departmental boundaries of good government. However ‘joined-up’ government has brought some changes; it is still in its infancy. Most departments of the government are still arranged in a vertical manner and this has been the case for almost fifty years and most of the joining-up of government agencies is the result of existing coordination between these departments rather than changes in the radical structure. This chapter discusses the background of British ‘joined-up’ government. It also discusses reforms the UK government has undertaken since 1997 to achieve the goal of a new government through integration and coordination. The chapter concludes with the possible direction of the future reforms on ‘joined-up’ government.