I’ve just taken the risky step of sending a draft of The Search for Democracy – a long journey (2024) to a friend. The first part of the title is the same as I gave to a small book I published in 1977 which tried to deal with some of the questions community activists were asking about the new system of Scottish local government.
The new draft deal with my experience since 1990 with advising ex-communist governments about public admin reform - one chapter dealing with how I saw the Western experience; another chapter with how I saw the Eastern; and another with the whole process of change. The one thing I don't deal with is how I see Democracy which I judged to be too academic for inclusion.
The draft is presently 248 pages which I'm not attaching since I wanted to give my correspondent the chance of refusing (which I would quite understand). But I hope he will say yes since it is not the normal treatment of the subject and consists of a lot of tables which relieve the text (and which I think will grab the readers' interest). The Structure of the Book is unusual for reasons I explain in a Warning
Preface
in which I recall how a radio series first aroused my interest in organisations, reflect on the book’s origins and why I think it may be of interest
1. The state of the State
in which I encounter the deficiencies of local bureaucracy (56 years ago), focing some of us to start rethinking the role of the State - privatisation had, in the 1980s, left us wondering how far this development could redefine its role; and the unexpected fall of the Berlin Wall and of communist regimes then had us concocting pathways to capitalism and democracy.
2. Administrative Reform in the new millenium
which captures one man’s attempt in 1999 to convey to a foreign audience his understanding of the organisational changes which had taken place in the 30 years from 1970 to the new millennium
3. Impervious Power – the eastern approaches
which reflects on the experience of western con-sultan ts in central Europe and central Asia aș they wrestled with the transition to what their tiny minds assumed to be democracy and free markets.
4. Question Time
A little British book about “the attack on the state” provoked me in 2018 into exploring some questions about the huge literature on public management reform (mainly academic) which has developed since the 1990s. include the following -
- How does each particular public service (eg health, education) work?
- Where can we find the measures of the efficiency and effectiveness of public services?
- How do countries compare internationally in the performance of their public services ?
- Has privatisation lived up to its hype?
- what alternatives are there to state and private provision
- why do governments still spend mega bucks on consultants?
5. The Management Virus
The private and public sectors alike seem to have been taken over în recent decades by hordes of managers. How has this happened? How do we stop it?
6. The echoes of Praxis
As someone who has straddled the worlds of politics, academia and consultancy, I am disappointed by the sparseness of the practitioner contribution to the literature. By default we are left with academics who interview those în government and sometimes train them and consultants – allthough the former are the more voluble
7.Take Back Control?
Which explores the implication of the quotation which adorns the book’s cover and asks how exactly might democracy improve the operation of our public services? Is this just a question of giving local government more power, as some would argue – ie giving a greater voice to the local public through their local representatives having a stronger legal and strategic role? Or does it require a more open and participative process – as many would argue? Or does it perhaps mean a greater say by the workforce in the everyday management of public services? Or a combination of all the above?
Hilary Wainwright is amongst the very few who have taken this question seriously – although the Dutch, with the Buurtzog model, are now exploring the question
8. Theories of Change
in which I question the compartmentalisation of the subject of change into studies of psychology, technology, organisation and society.
9. Inconclusion
Back to democracy
Notes; chapter by chapter
Annexes
1. Further Reading
2. About the author
3. Author’s publications
Warning to Reader
People do not normally read a book about reform with any expectation of pleasure.
Such texts will normally figure as required reading in student courses, for example, in public administration reform.
But this not a textbook on administrative reform….
It starts with my involvement, in the late 1960s, in community politics rising to a position of strategic influence in the West of Scotland local government - one held for some 20 years.
On the basis of the innovative strategies I helped develop in a Regional authority covering half of Scotland, I then found myself working and living for the next 30 plus years in Central Europe and Central Asia - as a consultant in “institutional development”
These are my musings about how and what I think I’ve learned (so far) about the process of change from my experience of attempting it in some dozen countries
As I’ve dared to suggest that we need to ration books, I need to explain why I’m inflicting this one on you and why I’m fed up with books which have nothing but text. So I’ve tried to liven things up a bit by the use of tables and boxes and the odd diagram
No comments:
Post a Comment