MISSION GOVERNMENT

A recent post on working class writers involved a fair amount of googling on the subject of CLASS which unearthed quite a few articles worthy of sharing but further reflection made me wonder why on earth anyone (apart from sociologists) would be interested in the minutiae of the UK class system. Readers who don’t agree are advised to go the bottom of the post . 

I was far more interested in this guest post on the Comment is Freed blog 

(by Dan Honig) about how the new government might approach public services 

The Institute for Government’s most recent Whitehall Monitor paints a picture of 

declining morale, with increasing numbers of civil servants heading for the exits. 

The tools the UK government employed to achieve  behaviour change are what I call 

“managing for compliance”.  The system is (over)burdened with rules, procedures, 

sanctions, and incentives. All are attempts to get bureaucrats to do what they 

otherwise would not. Compliance puts control and authority, those who set the targets 

and monitor the behaviours, at the top of the pyramid. Those lower down are meant 

to follow orders and respond to the reporting frameworks, carrots, and sticks dangled 

from above.
Tools of compliance sometimes fail to generate the behaviour they seek. Often, 

however, they succeed but only by generating behaviours and actions that can be 

monitored, measured, rewarded or sanctioned. Using compliance to change behaviours 

generates good performance where what is to be done is observable and verifiable. 

This is why fast food restaurants and package delivery companies heavily use the 

tools of compliance: what can be monitored about a burger or a package on a doorstep 

is pretty close to all the firm cares about. Unfortunately, most things Government 

strives to do are not so easily monitored and measured. A teacher with a student, 

doctor with a patient, social worker with a vulnerable child can all be monitored. 

So too can health or education outcomes far down the line. But long-term outcomes 

are very hard to attribute to the individual teacher, doctor, or social worker. 

Too many other factors contribute to their individual performances. It is impossible 

to get those workers to do the right thing through pure compliance.
Indeed, what the ‘right thing’ is also differs. Observably similar patients and student 

will need different amounts of time and strategies from providers. Those strategies 

ultimately require the informed judgment of a skilled practitioner. A heavy reliance 

on compliance does limit the damage an ill-intentioned employee (e.g. one who 

otherwise would not show up) can do, but it often does so at the cost of lowering 

overall performance. If you want systematic evidence that this is the case, in 

Mission Driven Bureaucrats I document how bureaucracies around the world 

over-rely on compliance.

The new British government has bought the idea of Mission Government - 

as espoused by Mariana Mazzucato - hook, line and sinker. She developed her 

ideas a few years ago in Mission Economy – a moonshot guide to changing capitalism 

(2021) which reminds us that governments face -

…. problems ranging from poverty to polluted oceans. To address them, we need a very different approach to public-private partnerships from the one we have now.

This requires a massive rethink of what government is for and the types of capability and capacity it needs. But, more importantly, it depends on what sort of capitalism we want to build, how to govern the relationships between the public and private sectors and how to structure rules, relationships and investments so that all people can flourish and planetary boundaries are respected. It is, as will be argued, about creating a solutions-based economy, focused on the most ambitious goals – the ones that really matter to people and to the planet. This is not about invoking the concept of a ‘moonshot’ as a siloed pet project. It is about transforming government from within and strengthening its systems – those for health, education, transport or the environment – while giving the economy a new direction.

I’ve only now downloaded the book – an oversight on my part since it makes a 

powerful case for government action which has been sorely lacking in the past 

few decades. She then identifies and discusses 5 myths

• Businesses creat value and take risks – government only facilitate

• The purpose of government is to fix market failures

• Governments need to run like a business

• Outsourcing saves taxpayer money and lowers risk

• Governments shouldn’t pick winners

Dan Honig has brought a similar vision to his new book Mission-Driven Bureaucrats 

(2024) which he discussed in this recent interview at the Centre for Policy 

Research. This reminds us all of McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y – viz whether 

you can trust employees or not.

Articles about Class
Beyond Class? D Cannadine British Academy (1998) article which offers a good overview
Class in the 21st Century – a review of “Social Class in the 21st Century (LSE 2013)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_British_Class_Survey which describes the survey 

carried out in 2011
On Social Class anno 2014 Mike Savage et al – which describes the subsequent book
review of Savage book 2015
Breaking the Class Ceiling Sam Friedman et al 2015
End Class Wars Mike Savage 2016
The Class Ceiling date?? 
Elites in the UK – pulling away Mike Savage et al (Sutton Trust 2020) 
Social Mobility – past, present and future (Sutton Trust 2022)