Capitalism - facing the new anxieties

I have just completed a book within 24 hours – the first time I have done this in many years. Before I reveal the title, let me offer a short para from page 201 which gives an excellent sense of the book’s focus

Capitalism last worked well between 1945 and 1970 - when policy was guided by a form of social democracy that had suffused through the main political parties (of Britain). Its ethical origins had been in the cooperative movement of the 19^th century created to address the urgent anxieties of the time.

Its narrative of solidarity became the foundation for a deepening web of reciprocal obligations that addressed these anxieties.

But then the ethical foundations of social democracy corroded – as its ethical leadership passed from the cooperative movement to utilitarian technocrats and Rawlsian lawyers. This ethics lacks resonance with people - and voters have gradually withdrawn their support.

The text then continues with what might seem a curious question – “Why did political parties not turn to pragmatism?” to which I will return later….

The book is “The Future of Capitalism – facing the new anxieties” by development economist Paul Collier who shows within a few pages the advantages such economists have over “normal” economists - he quotes extensively from the work of a social psychologist whose “Righteous Mind” I praised to the skies a couple of months ago and he is clearly familiar with works of moral philosophy and politics…..Such “intellectual trespassing” has been unheard of since the great days of Albert Hirschman!!

The author had been invited in 2017 by the editor of TLS to write a review of several books – a review which duly appeared as “How to Save Capitalism” and inspired him to keep pursuing the issues which had been raised in the books he had been given for review. 

Paul Collier is best known for his Bottom Billion – why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it? (2007) which one review put into excellent context in this way –

Before “The Bottom Billion”, the prominent economists’ debate about foreign aid was largely between Jeffrey Sachs’ passionate call for more assistance (“The End of Poverty” and his new “Common Wealth”), countered by William Easterly’s cautionary tales of aid gone wrong (“The Elusive Quest for Growth” and “The White Man’s Burden”). Collier’s Bottom Billion enters the fray with a very different kind of argument, calling for a variety of interventions, some of which are not really aid at all. Sachs wants more aid and Easterly wants less, but Collier wants different

And his disinclination to follow “the conventional wisdom” shows in his latest book which takes aim at both “left” and “right” ideologues – as well as technocrats, financiers, fat-cats and lawyers

There are three parts to the book – the first which looks at the “three appalling cleavages” which now divide societies which Collier designates as “geographical, educational and moral” which are not, for him,

“just problems I study; they are the tragedies that have come to define my sense of purpose in life, This is why I have written this book. I want to change this situation”

Part II is entitled “Restoring Ethics” and starts by reminding us that Adam Smith’s first book, prior to “The Wealth of Nations" was “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” which explored the various moral obligations find have no place in the economists’ rational calculator. He then argues that Jeremy Bentham is responsible for the subsequent wrong path taken by economics and then has short rather tantalising chapters on the “ethical state”, the “ethical firm”, the “ethical family” and the “ethical world”. In that sense it’s thoroughly in line with the thinking on the very recent post about healthy families, organisations and societies  - and indeed uses the same triple structure as Robin Skynner and John Cleese’s famous book on “Life – and how to survive it” (1990)

Part III is called “Restoring the Inclusive Society” and offers a range of interesting suggestions

I'll continue the analysis in future posts......

Reviews

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2018/11/paul-collier-move-left-economy-and-talk-language-belonging

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-future-of-capitalism-paul-collier/

https://www.usaidalumni.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Paul-Collier-book-review-by-Jim-Fox.pdf

http://www.bresserpereira.org.br/terceiros/2019/mar%C3%A7o/19.03-Contemporary-Capitalism.pdf

http://www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/index.php/2018/10/the-future-of-capitalism/

https://longreads.com/2019/02/19/maybe-what-we-need-is-more-politics/

https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/98627/angus-deaton-asks-why-advanced-countries-around-1970-economy-no-longer-serves-most

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2019/06/government-reform-when-will-we-ever.html

The Incredible Lightness of the "Deep" State in Romania

I am today doing something unique in the blog’s 10 year life – commenting on an apparent murder case and the anger it has aroused in the troubled society of Romania in which I have been living for the past few years. For more than a week now, television programmes have had endless, back-to-back discussion of the tragedy – with camera shots lingering over the details of gardens and fields as various searches were conducted.

The blog has covered aspects of Romanian society and politics on numerous occasions – the last being this fairly comprehensive post on the country’s problems a couple of months ago. 

I am moved to offer this coverage of what is actually at least two murders because it reveals very starkly aspects of the “deep state” in this part of the world – and the huge difficulties facing those who want to hold that system to account

The initial source of my information is a post on the issue from a journalist friend of mine who runs the Bridge of Friendship blog. On this occasion he was sharing an important article (in a Bulgarian-based journal called “Baricada”) written by a Romanian journalist Maria Cernat. And my long-suffering Romanian partner, Daniela, has helped me make (some sort of) sense of the issue and its significance.

Nothing is ever as it seems here – and I have therefore added some “editorial” comments to the excerpts I have selected from the “Baricada” article which is very-well written and should be read in its entirety…..

Romania has been in a state of shock for more than a week, after a 15-year old girl – Alexandra Măceşanu, from the southern city of Caracal, was killed on July 25th. Alexandra had gone to a larger city for private lessons. Due to Romania’s general lack of public transport, she was forced to hitchhike back home. The government recently eliminated free regional transport and now private transport companies aren’t obligated to service routes which don’t generate a profit. That is how she was abducted by a 57-year old automobile mechanic, Gheorghe Dincă, who operated an unlicensed taxi service. He took her to a house in Caracal. In spite of the fact that Alexandra called the emergency phone number 112 a few times, police didn’t manage to pinpoint her signal immediately, and didn’t enter the house until the following morning, because of lack of permission from the observing prosecutor. In the 19 hours between the first call until police entered the house where she was being held, Alexandra was repeatedly raped and then killed.

Curiously, the article does not report on what happened next with Dinca being taken to the police station where he demanded to speak with one particular policeman - with whom he was then allowed to speak for one hour and to whom he confessed not only the murder but that he had burned her body (he also confessed to another murder with the victim’s remains also being buried in his garden). There is presumably a tape-recording of that hour’s highly irregular conversation – but we have to ask why on earth it was ever allowed. It has certainly allowed all sorts of conspiracies to emerge and circulate about "collusion" of police and "mafia" and dark networks......

The burned remains were taken to Bucharest and the victim’s DNA confirmed. Not surprisingly, however, the family dispute these results. As indeed the defence lawyers might obviously dispute the confession…..

I give these details simply to demonstrate the murky aspects of the operation of the Romanian state….The article continues.....

The case has shaken Romania not only because of the brutal abuse of the adolescent, but also because state institutions acted with inexplicable slowness, which enabled the criminal to follow his plan to completion. Alexandra phoned 112. It took the police 19 hours to intervene……

Three months prior, another young girl from the zone- Luiza Melencu, was killed by the same man. This horrible fact was publicized, along with a 2012 human trafficking case at the Deveselu military base. The base has been used by American air defence since 2011.

Romanian society is even more upset than it was in the case of the Colectiv nightclub fire, where more than 60 people died. Now various answers are appearing in response to the questions of who is to blame: some condemn the prosecutor, Cristian Ovidiu Popescu, who didn’t permit Alexandra’s rescue, refusing to issue a warrant to allow police access to the house. Police were made to wait for hours on the doorstep of the criminal’s house. Popescu was lauded by the former anti-corruption prosecution (DNA) chief, Laura Koveşi. To some people this means that he is from the movement #rezist (which was a main force behind the 2017 protests in support of anti-corruption – note of the translator). But others say that the police didn’t need a warrant, but could have entered the house out of the need to save a life. In that case, the blame falls on the Social Democratic party-ruled government.

The article doesn’t mention that Popescu was sacked immediately the media got hold of this information and a new prosecutor appointed who then seems to have enforced a 5-day closure of the house before a proper search could be carried out. This beggars belief – just imagine the outrage in northern Europe if a proper search was not carried out until 5 days had elapsed!!

The audio of the victim’s phone calls with the 112 emergency hotline operator and the police officer were released recently. This has sparked a huge debate about ethical journalistic standards since the parents initially agreed only to the printed version of the phone calls being released. The audio is almost unbearable to listen to. Alexandra called 112 three times. In one conversation she says she has been kidnapped and raped and the police officer tells her to hang up because she’s keeping the line busy and there are other people calling!

Then, as if this horror was not enough, the press released the recording of a phone call between one local chief of police and someone who is known in the city as a local head of an organized crime network. The gangster criticized the police while the officer humbly thanked him for his cooperation!

Ecaterina Andronescu, the Minister of Education from the Social Democratic party, the party which basically destroyed public transportation and left children such as Alexandra at the mercy of people who own cars, was sacked. Andronescu declared that she was taught as a child not to get into strangers’ cars! The cruelty of this declaration knows no bounds since Alexandra had no means of transportation due to the decisions of these politicians! 

At this stage I have two observations – the article fails to mention that this “gangster” actually operates a security company (under due legal authority) which is obliged to cooperate with the police and to respond to any police requests for assistance. Indeed it was after such an approach that the “gangster” actually identified and reported the perpetrator’s car to the police – leading to the reported expression of gratitude! Security companies are, at the best of times, "shady enterprises" and I am not suggesting that its boss in this instance was a model citizen. But, in the unforgettable words of a political colleague of mine in the 1970s - 

"we have to be careful with words - it's all we have!!" 

My second point is that it is simply untrue to imply that the Minister of Education “left children at the mercy of people who own cars” since this is the Minister who actually initiated the system of school buses some years ago…..But this tragedy happened during school holidays when that system was suspended (as happens throughout Europe during the summer vacations) 

Romanian journalists, it appears, can never miss an opportunity to take partisan shots…..

.

My previous posts on Romania have emphasised what a divided society it is – in the last few years the country has become very polarised with the implicit attitude that "if you’re not for us, you’re against us" 
The neutral mugwumps who want fair reporting are simply crushed between the 2 forces.
But please read the full article to see how it places the murder as what Maria Cernat, the author, calls a "symptom of:

-       a passive culture, in which neighbours and family knew about Dincă’s violence  against women (because he had a history of domestic violence), but didn’t react;

-        a profoundly vicious economic system, which generates inequalities that can be fatal for those who lack the good fortune of being born to the privileged elite;

-       the reactionary attitudes of politicians, who want half-baked solutions to serious problems – be it the #rezist camp, which seems to be inescapably locked into a pathetic slogan, “F*ck PSD” (PSD being the ruling Social Democratic Party – note of the translator)

-        the way, in which tragedies such as this one, lead to solutions such as absurdly giving the police even more force than they had before the tragedy;

-        an apparent strange cohabitation between the institutions of force and the thieves, who have escaped justice miraculously in many cases;

-        the trafficking of vulnerable persons, for whom gender and class are not simply social traits, but social determiners that could easily sentence them to a terrible death".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Forest

The State of the Fourth Estate

Journalists, ironically, don’t tend to get a good press – not according to various polls which rate public trust in various institutions and professions and which generally find journalism in the bottom of the league in such tables.

And Trump hasn’t helped with his constant refrain of “fake media!”

But, until recently, journalism (and the media generally) was recognised as such a crucial part of our system that it was known as the “fourth estate”….. But no more apparently….One recent article indeed referred to the “myth of the fourth estate”

This book chapter gives a good overview of the topic.

Over the years I’ve apparently devoted almost 20 posts to the subject – with more than half in the past 2 years (see below for a full list).  I know this because my very recent post on public services accused journalists of dereliction of duty and I used my “search” button to check out what I have been saying about them over the past decade,  In fact it’s remarkably measured – if not complimentary!

I recognise, for example, that the best writing generally has often come from journalists of the calibre of George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, Joseph Roth and Walter Benjamin - well before the “new journalism” of the 1970s…….and writers such as Joan Didion and Svetlana Alexievich

Clearly there are journalists …and journalists…..The hierarchy probably starts with “writers” – with specialist “correspondents” having a certain prestige status - and the “run of the mill” sort traditionally known as….”hacks” (presumably from their habit of “hacking” away at the typewriter and with cigarette smoke enveloping them!!). I wonder, however, whether generalist television journalists actually warrant the title of journalist since they use images rather than words???

And people have switched from newspapers to television and the social media. The internet has decimated newspaper advertising and journalists’ jobs – to say nothing of killing investigative budgeting…….

Two other trends have been noticeable –

   -  first a growing number of people are turned off by the grimness of the news coming from their sets and want something more positive. A couple of years ago, for example, The Guardian started a series called The Upside with “good news” stories. But I confess my heart drops a bit when I spot such an item and I rarely click it!

-  And an increasing number of writers are turning to scientific or curious topics and producing fascinating books eg on things such as salt, silence, walking ….even history of economic ideas

Historian Timothy Garton Ash recently produced a large and worthy book exploring such themes (which, another mea culpa, I have not been able to persevere with). It’s called  “Free Speech – 10 principles for a connected  world” and attracted a long review here

We need also to be careful to distinguish journalists as individuals from the corporate structures which employ them.

Most of what might be called the ”sins of commission” (titillation, partiality, bias and downright criminal behaviour) are the results of owners’ and editors’ judgements which reflect their political and financial interests.

Journalists tend to more guilty of “sins of omission” (what they can’t be bothered writing about) and “sins of laziness” (living on press releases)

More specifically my posts have expressed the following concerns

·       Although coverage of what is too easily labelled “corruption” and the blunders of government is extensive, it is too often focused on titillating details - and fails to explore the underlying forces at work eg public spending cuts, ideology, government fashions…

·       articles recognising and exploring the possible effects of such coverage on public cynicism and fatalism are very rare. This raises wider issues about journalistic ethics..   

·       hundreds of thousands of academics and think-tankers (and a few consultants) have been devoting their energies to over the past 40 years to mapping the progress of reforming the public services. But only 2 of tens of thousands of books on the subject have been written by journalists

The archive on journalism

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2011/03/investigative-journalism.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2011/07/british-bread-oz-circus-and-bulgarian.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2012/03/fighting-big-brother.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2012/04/suborning-democracy.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2012/06/getting-under-skin.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2015/05/confessionals.html Pat Chalmers

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2015/05/is-british-journalism-dead.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2017/05/journals-worth-reading.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2017/08/in-praise-of-journalists.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2017/09/making-sense-of-global-crisis.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2018/03/why-we-should-not-be-so-cynical-about.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2018/03/brexit-and-reassertion-of-nation-state.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-writers-craft.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2018/11/kenneth-roy-voice-to-renew-faith-in.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-stuff-of-journalism.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2019/03/in-praise-of-literary-magazines.html

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2019/03/what-does-brexit-tell-us-about-ourselves.htmlhttps://nomadron.blogspot.com/2023/02/bad-economics-and-journalistic.html

Looking for a positive purpose

I’m always on the lookout for books which challenge how we look at the world.  A few years back I read a really original book - The Puritan Gift (2003) – which told a powerful story of how and why American business had changed its values in the second half of the 20th Century. No less a figure than Russell Ackoff wrote a foreword calling it simply

“one of the best books I have ever read in my long life – a social history of the American nation which also doubles up as a commentary on managerial culture”

I blogged about it at the time but the book’s theme and message does deserve broadcasting….

It was written by two brothers (then in their 80s) who had migrated from Scotland in their youth and it argues that the mid-20th century strength of American business, and the prosperity and cultural confidence it created, was due to key characteristics inherited from the country's founding fathers, the Puritan dissenters. The authors list these characteristics as:

- a sense of moral purpose in life;

- a liking and aptitude for mechanical skills;

- collegiality, giving the group priority over individual interests; and organizational ability.

“The Puritan Gift is a rare ability to create organizations that serve a useful purpose, and to manage them well.”

Sadly but all too typically, the book seems to have been ignored by the management scribblers – although it is still in print. About the only person to review it seems to have been Diane Coyle to whose excellent blog I’m indebted for the following summary –

The book starts with a history of the early days and heyday of US corporations, using an Armory in Springfield, Massachussetts as a case study which illustrated the importance not only of technical know-how and innovation – but of good employer standards and collegiality – sharing know-how and best practice with other gun-makers.

One fascinating chapter describes the transplantation of this American approach to Japanese business through the actions of three communications engineers employed in the MacArthur occupation. The Japanese communications and electronics industry was remade in the image of the best of America, and the Hoppers attribute the success of the consumer electronics industry to the adoption of these management practices. A war-destroyed, impoverished country became the world's second biggest economy in the space of three decades.

Decay set in early, however, and the Hoppers' first villain is Frederick W Taylor. He started the process of turning efficient organisational structures into social hierarchies, with top managers increasingly less likely to be engineers or technicians working their way up from the shop floor.

Business schools continued this evisceration of the actual process of business, creating a professional cadre of managers, superior in status in pay, and with purely financial and abstract knowledge in place of the tacit skills and experience previously displayed by management cohorts. The downfall was completed by the steadily increasing celebration of greed, sucking the moral heart out of American capitalism.

Coyle completes her review by saying –

It's hard to disagree with the outlines of this argument, harder to know what to do about it. The final part of the book is a brief attempt to suggest some ideas, with a list of 25 principles of Puritan management. Most of these seem very sensible without setting the heart racing.

The key aspect of the Puritan Gift seems to be the sense of purpose. As John Kay has argued (in The Foundations of Corporate Success), a good business is one with a clear sense of purpose. The profits are a by-product, but without the core purpose there is no hope of sustained profitability.

Discussion about the purpose of companies ebbs and flows…..The notion of “stakeholders” was much discussed in the 1990s as a more useful concept than the much-criticised one of “shareholder value” which had emerged from the greedy 1980s. Such discussions do not these days attract much interest - but a much more interesting one hopefully got underway recently – partly sparked by talk of the “platform economy” and books such as Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organisations to which I dedicated a post a few months back.    

If I have one point to draw from my (relatively) long life, it is that we need to return to this fundamental question of purpose. And to take more seriously the question of the nature of the “good society”, the “good organisation”, the “good city”.

I know we get embarrassed by such phrases – so by all means let’s talk instead of the “healthy society”….. the “healthy organisation”……”healthy cities”…….(as did Robin Skynner and John Cleese in their 1990 book "Life - and How to Survive it!")

Update; apparently the British Academy started a new programme in 2017 on “the future of the corporation” I learned this from Paul Collier’s new book "The Future of Capitalism – facing the new anxieties” (2018) which, so far in my reading, I’m finding a very exciting read – imbued with a moral passion economists don’t normally like to display. Its opening pages use Jonathan Haidt’s analysis in “The Righteous Mind” to give one of the most incisive treatments of our present social malaise I have read in the past few decades.  

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