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 studentwill 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 worldover-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)
No comments:
Post a Comment