Time to get the finger out

Last year I devoted a lot of time to trying to identify what we have learned from 50 years of trying to improve the operation of our public services.  In 1989 “the state” had crumbled – at least in eastern Europe – and a huge effort was put in by international bodies and consultancies to try to help countries in that area build on western experience and create effective state bodies which would be responsive to public needs  … But also to deal with the new socio-economic challenges which required dramatic changes in how all state bodies went about their business…

The Brits had started this fashion in the 1970s – when it was only of interest to oddities written off as  “anoraks”, But suddenly everyone wanted in on the act….

In the current draft of How did Admin Reform get to be so sexy? I suggest 15 questions as the best way into the most interesting (and extensive) writing on the matter and note that

- Different parts of the world have their own very different approaches and ways of talking about the reform of public services. English language material has tended to dominate the literature; but  

- Scandinavians, Germans and French let alone South Americans, Chinese and Indians have also developed important ideas and experience - of which English-speakers tend to be blithely unaware.

- We are overwhelmed by texts on reform experience but most written by academics – targeting their students and other academics. Where are the writers who can help the public make sense of it all?

- At least 8 very different groups have been active in shaping our thinking about “reform” efforts. These are - academics, politicians, think-tankers, global bodies, senior officials, consultants, journalists and an indeterminate group- each uses very different language and ideas

– with academics being the most prolific (but tending to talk in jargon amongst themselves; and therefore being ignored by the rest of us)- Some “old hands” have tried to summarise the experience for us in short and clear terms. The lesson, they suggest, is that little has changed…

- What is sad is how few “social justice” campaigners seem interested in this issue (Hilary Wainwright being an honourable exception….).

One of the few groups positioned to act as a bridge between the public and the (extensive but generally arcane) writing on the subject are journalists who choose, however, to titillate readers with tales of blunders and corruption which – far from arousing protest and activism - only serves to develop cynicism and fatalism

It’s interesting that the book which helped spark off the global interest in what became known as New Public Management – Reinventing Government (1992) - was written by a consultant and journalist (David Osborne and Ted Graeber respectively). 
It’s more than time for other journalists and consultants to get the finger out and follow suit

I've offered reading lists before on this subject - but this is my most up-to-date and considered shot yet....

The Best reading on the reform of public services

It’s remarkable how few titles are available to help the concerned citizen (or official) make sense of the “reforms” which have deluged the public sector in the past few decades – whether privatisation, restructuring or austerity. There are, of course, thousands of academic books – but they have a weird focus on arcane and incestuous matters and simply don’t ask the sort of questions most people are interested in….   

The following may appear a long list – of the generalist books from the past 30 years I would recommend to the activist - but the 15 books work out as one every 2 years!!

Dismembered – the ideological attack on the state; Polly Toynbee and D Walker (2017) a clear analysis by two british journalists

“The 21^st century public manager – challenges, people and strategies”; Z van der Wal (2017) An interesting-looking book written by a Dutch academic and consultant who has spent the past  7 years as a Prof at the University of Singapore

Reclaiming Public Services – how cities and citizens are turning back privatisation; TNI (2017) An excellent overview by the radical international think tank of this very welcome trend

How to Run a Government so that Citizens Benefit and Taxpayers don’t go Crazy ; Michael Barber (2015). A clearly written and rare book about the approaches favoured by a consultant who became Tony Blair’s favourite "go-to" fixer

The Fourth Revolution – the global race to reinvent the state; J Micklewaithe and A Woolridge (2015) Editors of no less a journal than The Economist give us a breathless neoliberal analysis

The Tragedy of the Private – the potential of the public; Hilary Wainwright (PSI 2014) an important little pamphlet

Public Sector Reform – but not as we know it; Hilary Wainwright (Unison and TNI 2009) A rare readable case study (Newcastle) of a bottom-up  approach to reform. We need much more of this.....

Leadership for the Common Good; Crosby and Bryson (2^nd edition 2005) Probably the most comprehensive of the practical guides to getting the public services working well. Clicking the title gives the entire 500 pages!

The Essential Public Manager; Chris Pollitt (2003) A great and very practical analysis of the political and technical aspects of the search for effective public services

“The Values of Bureaucracy”; Paul du Gay (2003) Proceedings of an academic conference on du Gay's 2000 book which was a rare attempt to rescue aspects od this all-too-easilymaligned institution. You should be able to access the full book by googling the title – or try clicking this address blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=attachment&id=23845

“The Captive State – the corporate takeover of Britain; George Monbiot” (2000) A powerful critique of the nature and scale of corporate involvement in our public services which first alerted me to the nature of public-private partnerships

In Praise of Bureaucracy; weber, organisation, ethics; Paul du Gay (2000) It may be academic, but is clearly written and has become a classic defence of a much maligned institution. Well reviewed here

Change the World; Robert Quinn (2000) Simply the best analysis of the process of social and organizational change

Creating Public Value – strategic management in government; Mark Moore (1995) One of the few books which actually looks at examples of effective leaders in the public sector. Started a wave of (in-house) discussion which led to what could be the third stage of public admin

Reinventing Government; David Osborne and Graeber (1992) The book which started the New Public Management revolution.

More specialist recommended reads

Supporting small steps – a rough guide for developmental professionals (Manning; OECD 2015)

A Governance Practitioner’s Notebook – alternative ideas and approaches (Whaites et al OECD 2015)

Rethinking policy and politics – reflections on contemporary debates in policy studies ed C Ayres (2014)

Reinventing Organisations; Frederic Laloux (2014)

People, Politics and Change - building communications strategy for governance reform (World Bank 2011)

Governance Reform under Real-World Conditions – citizens, stakeholders and Voice (World Bank 2008)

The 21^st Century Public Servant; C Needham and Mangham (undated) Results of a British research project

The Blacksburg Manifesto and the postmodern debate about PA; Marshall and White (1990)

Public service trade unions

The International Trade Union Confederation

European Trade Unions (ETUC)

https://publicservices.international/resources/publications

Public Services International

TUC (Trade Union Council) UK

Long Live the King!

So the UK now has a new Prime Minister – if one viewed by the world (and most of Britain) as a total – if charming - clown. But this seems to be part of a world-wide trend (eg Italy, US, Ukraine) which has seen celebrities ascend to such heights…

Johnson is actually brainer than he lets on – his buffoonery is a carefully cultivated act he has been honing since childhood, when he first realised that it made people laugh and like him. Most men, when appearing on television for example, will comb their hair – Johnson does the opposite, ruffling it to ensure he retains his trademark image of disorganisation…. John Oliver captures this well with this short sequence.
And this extensive article from the LRB places Johnson firmly in the tradition of British satire. 

Here’s a youtube discussion Boris Johnson took part in a few years back (2016?) with an Oxbridge Professor on the merits of Greeks and Romans - which gives a measure of that bit of the man… 

How did it happen?

Appointed to his position by a curious system created by the Conservative party (some 20 years ago) but used rarely for the appointment of the country’s Prime Minister, Johnson was the clear favourite from the start – but attracted the support of a bare majority of Conservative MPs. And was then subject (along with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt) to a fortnight of debate within the membership (of 160,000) Conservative party members.

From this he emerged last week with the support of 66% of Conservative party members – and was duly anointed by the Queen on Friday.

What did he then do?

Under the (unwritten) UK constitution, this is enough to allow him to appoint a Cabinet – which he duly did over the weekend. 

It’s been called the most right-wing cabinet ever seen in the UK – and it is certainly one being readied for another election in the autumn – only some 2 years after the last one called by his predecessor Theresa May who had inherited a good majority but lost it in that gamble. 

And he has appointed as one of his key advisers Dominic Cummings - who figured in the film I blogged about earlier in the year

But Johnson and his government are highly vulnerable to any vote of confidence – a bye-election this week could see the government’s theoretical majority reduced to one! And it is clear that there is no majority in the current Parliament for a no-deal Brexit…

As usual, the Brexit blog gives the pithiest summary of the situation….And Richard North’s EUReferendum blog gives us this assessment of the No-Deal option.

So now what? The Institute of Government Think Tank has just published a briefing on the issues which confront him and his government. What is very clear is that Theresa May did her best to keep the UK within the ambit of the EU and that we now have a government which is determined to take the country out of Europe "lock, stock and barrel"!

A Pause for reflection

With my usual serendipity, I had plucked a rather worn-looking book from the library over the same weekend – Timothy Garten Ash’s “Facts are Subversive- political writing from a decade without a name” (2010) - one of whose essays bears the title “Is Britain European?”, written in 2001) and is one of the best things I have read on the subject, taking me back to the series of posts I did on British (or English) identity I did earlier in the year……This is one of the last of about a dozen posts on the subject I did then……

Garten Ash’s article has also got a great set of references – including the name of a historian I hadn’t heard of Jeremy Black  who has just produced Britain and Europe – a short history (2019)

A lot of us are looking to historians to help us make sense of this moment in the history of a country about which a lot of us grew up being very ambivalent…

As a Scot with a Scottish father and English mother - and educated in a state school - I didn’t absorb much English history so come fairly fresh to the stuff flowing from sophisticated English nationalist academics such as this first part of a series which is presumably being written to put Brexit in "proper" context. Jonathan Storey is a retired History Professor (from the Insead Business School in France) and runs a blog which offers thought-provoking views of the UK and Europe - in posts which are even longer than mine! . 

Further references
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/24/the-empty-promise-of-boris-johnson - the most powerful expose I’ve seen
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/07/boris-johnson-profile/594379/ - another devastating psychological profile

http://kyq4.blogspot.com/2019/07/from-attlee-to-boris-integrity-to-post.html - my friend Keith’s great summary of the man the country has allowed to become PM

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/27/boris-johnson-no-10-pericles-greek-hero

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/29/no-deal-brexit-tory-joke-boris-johnson-economic-britain

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/29/jacob-rees-mogg-language-rules

https://storybookreview.wordpress.com/2019/07/26/brexit-and-the-british-constitution-part-i-the-roots-of-the-old-constitution/

https://infacts.org/

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n13/james-wood/diary

Brexit: Behind Closed Doors, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvKGWQXi3rM

What is wrong with us?

This blog has recorded 1360 posts in the past decade – mostly on serious social matters. One issue has, however, been curiously absent – namely climate change.  There was, admittedly, a brief reference earlier in the year to The Club of Rome’s report - Come On! Capitalism, short-termism, population and the destruction of the planet; (2018) (superbly summarized in this article in the fascinating Cadmus journal).

But it is all of 5 years since I last did an extended post on the issue – when I summarized a great book with the title “Why we Disagree on Climate Change”

A short, vivid article in the current issue of the New York Review of Books had me pulling some books off the shelves and wondering about this gap in the blog’s musings. It starts by recognizing a twofold problem which confronts those who write about climate change –

First, how to overcome readers’ resistance to ever-worsening truths, especially when climate-change denial has turned into a political credo and a highly profitable industry. ….

Second, in view of the breathless pace of new discoveries, publishing can barely keep up. Refined models continually revise earlier predictions of how quickly ice will melt, how fast and high CO2 levels and seas will rise, how much methane will be belched from thawing permafrost, how fiercely storms will blow and fires will burn, how long imperilled species can hang on, and how soon fresh water will run out (even as they try to forecast flooding from excessive rainfall). There’s a real chance that an environmental book will be obsolete by its publication date.

The article looks at two recently-published books on the ecological crisis – the first The Uninhabitable Earth based on an article which had attracted the usual criticism for scaremongering when it appeared in 2017

Its critics have largely been subdued by infernos that have laid waste to huge swaths of California; successive, monstrous hurricanes—Harvey, Irma, and Maria—that devastated Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico in 2017; serial cyclone bombs exploding in America’s heartland; so-called thousand-year floods that recur every two years; polar ice shelves fracturing; and refugees pouring from desiccated East and North Africa and the Middle East, where temperatures have approached 130 degrees Fahrenheit, and from Central America, where alternating periods of drought and floods have now largely replaced normal rainfall.

“The Uninhabitable Earth” has become a best seller – and taps into the underlying emotion of the day: fear. This book is meant to scare the hell out of us, because the alarm sounded by NASA’s Jim Hansen in his electrifying 1988 congressional testimony on how we’ve trashed the atmosphere still hasn’t sufficiently registered. “More than half of the carbon exhaled into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels has been emitted in just the past three decades,” writes Wallace-Wells, “since Al Gore published his first book on climate.”

How many warnings do we need? It’s 30 years since the American Congress received that warning from James Hansen; and almost 50 years since the Club of Rome’s “The Limits to Growth” explosive report in 1972. I had thought that was the first such warning but a book I’ve just been reading (“The Wizard and the Prophet”) tells me that 1948 saw the publication of no less than 2 prescient books – “Our Plundered Planet” by F Osborn and “Road to Survival” by W Vogt (who figures as the “prophet” in the book (see list below)

Naomi Klein is a well-known Canadian journalist who, like most of us, had tended to hide her head in the sand on this issue – with justifications that equally explain my own blog silence on the issue - that
- it was too complex; 
- others were dealing with it; 
- technical change would sort things out; or 
- a few personal changes in life-style could at least salve the conscience….

In 2009 a chance encounter changed that – and she started to write This Changes Everything which became a bestseller in 2014.  A couple of reviews give excellent and detailed summaries which will help you select the most appropriate part of this rather sprawling book (the link in the title gives the entire text). I had read the book a few years ago but have now gone back to it to read more carefully – along with the second book on the reading list I’ve developed below. And here's an update 

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2022/05/climate-change-emergency-who-is-to-blame 

Hopefully this goes some way to make up for my failure to give this life-and-death issue the priority it warrants…..

Climate Change Resource
TheUninhabitable Earth – life after warming; David Wallace-Wells (2019) This highly readable book from a journalist who has compressed his extensive reading into a series of short, very punchy chapters can be accessed by clicking the title. 

https://www.catherineingram.com/facingextinction/ - written by someone who believes we really are nearing the end... 

Change – why we need a radical turnaround; Graham Maxton (2019). Written to try to persuade the ordinary citizen of the need to take this issue more seriously – and therefore without the copious referencing of an academic book. Would be even better with a few carefully-chosen references..Full access the usual way  

Come On! Capitalism, short-termism, population and the destruction of the planet; Club of Rome (2018). This is the definitive text (in full here) for anyone who wants an up-to-date overview of the point we’ve reached. These are the people who first alerted us in 1972 and were pilloried mercilessly by the corporate elites for their audacity.

The report probably falls into the category of “not give up hope completely” and the technical options described in detail in the last part of the book do give the impression that things might still be fixed….But the politics suggests otherwise  

Drawdown – the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warning; ed Paul Hawken (2017). The title may be a bit over the top but the scale of research undertaken for  a superbly-designed book was impressive 

This Changes Everything – capitalism v the climate;  Naomi Klein (2014). 

This book by the Canadian journalist is written for those who are already convinced about the need for urgent action. Those new to the issue should first read books such as “The Uninhabitable Earth” and Lynas to get a sense of how bad things are. 
A couple of reviews give excellent and detailed summaries which will help you select the most appropriate part of Klein's book (the link in the title gives the entire text).  The first is here. The second review gives a useful summary of the scientific issues at stake and then of each chapter. Another review gives a more selective summary

Part 1,“Bad Timing,” explores the political context in which the battle against climate change has been fought, and the political dimensions and implications of climate change policy. The “bad timing” she is referring to is the way that the need for collective action on climate change came into public awareness at almost exactly the same time as neoliberalism become the dominant political force on the planet.

Part 2, “Magical Thinking,” explores the various attempts to address climate change that Klein argues haven’t worked: large green groups partnering with big business to find market-based solutions; billionaires and philanthropists attempting to solve the problem on their own terms; and geo-engineering and imagined future technology. This is what Klein refers to as “magical thinking.”

Part 3, “Starting Anyway,” contains six chapters that explore forms of grass-roots resistance to the expansion of the fossil-fuel industry, and community-led solutions to climate change.  

The Wizard and the prophet – science and the future of our planet; Charles Mann (2014)

A detailed study by a journalist of two figures at opposite ends of the climate debate.

“The Carbon Crunch; how we’re getting climate change wrong – and how to fix it”; Dieter Helm (2012). This by an economist – and the subtitle is the giveaway to his optimism

Why we Disagree on Climate Change – understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity; Mike Hulme (2009). An environmental scientist Professor takes a rare and deep look into our cultural disagreements – using anthropological insights

 “Storms of my Grandchildren – the truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity”; James Hansen (2009). A powerful story of how one scientist has tried to warn us

Blessed Unrest - how the largest social movement in history is restoring grace, justice and beauty to the world; Paul Hawken (2007); Beautifully-written history of the environmental movement, with particular emphasis on the contemporary aspects. Very detailed annex.

“Six Degrees – our future on a hotter planet”; Mark Lynas (2007) A detailed examination by an environmental journalist of what happens when the planet heats up – one degree at a time. Bear in mind that our present increase of 1.5 degrees is already causing havoc – and that reputable organisations such as the World Bank predict a 4 degree increase

“The revenge of Gaia – why the earth is fighting back – and how we can still save humanity”; James Lovelock (2006). One of our most famous scientists (just turned 100) who coined the Gaia concept

“The Carbon War – global warming and the end of the oil era”; Jeremy Leggett (1999) from an entrepreneur and writer passionately committed to alternative energy

“Slow Reckoning; the ecology of a divided planet”; Tom Athanasiou (1996) by an activist and writer. Still worth reading 20 years on for the breadth of its references

“The End of Nature – humanity, climate change and the natural world”; Bill McKibben (1989). McKibben was one of the early environmental writers – and this is his classic book

Update; https://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/the-politics-of-climate-change-is-this-time-different/

Know Thyself?

When I was working in Central Europe in the early 1990s I used to buy multiple copies of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (1989) by Stephen Covey in the local language - Hungarian, Slovak and Romanian – since it was about the only book of its sort I knew and respected which had already been translated into these languages and therefore useful as a means of finding some common ground. The principles are - 

- be proactive (don't blame others; take responsibility)
- begin with the end in mind; 
- put first things first; 
- think win/win; 
- seek first to understand - then to be understood; 
- synergise; and, finally 
- "sharpen the saw" - ie keep mentally and physically fit.

I was well aware that, as an American self-help book, it would strike most of my audiences (who had just emerged from communism) as hopelessly optimistic if not naïve - but still felt that some of its messages – eg the one about important change coming from within ourselves rather than thro' manipulation of others – were sufficiently powerful to have a chance of sticking with at least a few people. How naïve I was in those days! Some 20 years on I’ve been looking at the book again - and have to say that it still makes for an important and worthwhile read 

As the new millennium dawned, I started to use a book on “Behaviour in organisations” in my project work – it was indeed only through the Belbin team role test and strategic thinking exercises that I began to understand that we all look at (and think about) the world in different ways. 
Postmodernity tended to pass me by – although I was aware of Gareth Morgan’s Images of Organisation (1986) and Baumon’s Post Modernity and its discontents (1997)….

Of course, as we get older, we do tend to go beyond systems and look to the personal. As I tried, a couple of decades ago, to repair the huge deficiencies in my understanding of the personal world, I  noted the different ways our behaviour was classified viz -

• age
• gender
• culture
• psychological type
• socio-economic position
• politico religious values

How different writers try to explain our behaviour -

Defining Variable	Authors	Classification system	The crude message	The deeper message
1. Age	W. Bridges Gail Sheehy Ronnie Lessem	7 stages Ditto 4 stages	Young and old inhabit different planets	Each stage of life brings its own crisis – which we should see as a learning opportunity
2. Gender	John Gray	binary! – represented by Venus and Mars planets	Men and women are from different planets	time and effort needed to understand and show respect for others
3. Culture	Lessem F Trompenaars Huntingdon	4 - Points of compass ??	Societies will never understand one another	People from different countries value things differently from us.
4. Psychological Type	Jung Belbin	Introvert - extrovert 9 team roles	We have internal dispositions to behave in very different ways.	The world works because each of us can potentially complement the other. We should not try to mould people in our image
5. Socio-economic position	A Maslow C Handy?	Hierarchy of need (5 levels) 4 organ types	Those with basic needs are selfish and aggressive	Do not expect those poorer and richer than us to see the world the way we do
6. Values	A. Etzioni McGregor R Ingelhart	Three Theory X and theory Y World values	Some of us are kinder than others	What we think will work in society depends on the assumptions we make about people
7. Organisational metaphor	Gareth Morgan (Images of Organisation)	9 (unconscious) ways we all think about organisations – like a physical body; brain; prison;	Nothing is real! Everything is in our minds!	What we think will work in an organisation depends on the images we have in our mind