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Shrinking the state: reforming arm's length bodies in an age of austerity

缩小国家规模：在紧缩时代改革独立机构

基本信息

批准号：
ES/J010553/1
负责人：
Chris Skelcher
金额：
$ 83.55万
依托单位：
University of Birmingham
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2012
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2012 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FJ010553%2F1
关键词：
Shrinking state reforming arm length

项目摘要

Calls for a 'bonfire of the quangos' regularly appear on the political agenda in the UK, but often fail to deliver significant reforms. Now, however, the Coalition Government is making a sustained attempt to reform these 'arm's length bodies' that make decisions and deliver public services independently of ministers, an issue tackled previously by the Scottish Executive and Welsh Assembly Government.Behind the heat of the debate lie important issues for democratic accountability, efficiency and organisation in the British state. These are especially important in the context of current economic, financial and policy challenges, deficit reduction and the ambition to shift greater responsibility for public provision to citizens and voluntary organisations. The current debate about arm's length bodies in the UK raises a number of important questions for policy makers and academic researchers:1. Why have arm's length bodies been so durable in the face of political and public hostility? 2. Why is reform now possible, and is this a distinctly UK phenomenon? 3. How is the durability and reform of arm's length bodies affected by a climate of austerity? 4. What are the consequences of reforming arm's length bodies for ministers, Parliament, civil servants and those organisations and individuals who use their services? 5. Are there other ways in which delegation of executive or advisory authority to independent bodies might be designed, and what can developments internationally and at local level teach us? Our research will track the development and implementation of the Coalition Government's reform of arm's length bodies and compare this with developments within the devolved administration in the UK, at local level, and internationally. It will consider the legal, constitutional and administrative issues involved, but also the broader politics involved in reshaping and shrinking the state.The research has five distinctive features: 1. It will bring together leading scholars who have employed different but complementary approaches in prior ALB research to develop new theory to explain agency design in the Westminster system in comparative perspective.2. It has been developed, and will work closely, with partners in the policy community, especially the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, Public Chairs' Forum, Local Government Information Unit, and Association of Chief Executives.3. It will employ advanced quantitative and qualitative techniques in a unique and powerful mixed methods design, not previously employed in this field. 4. It will overcome the single-nation, national level bias in studies of ALBs through the integration of cross-national and multi-level data. This will promote knowledge exchange with policy communities and add to the impact of the research. 5. It will stimulate an international dialogue among scholars concerned with the democratic challenges of institutional design for policy achievement.

呼吁举行“半官方篝火晚会”的呼声经常出现在英国的政治议程上，但往往无法带来重大改革。然而，现在联合政府正在持续努力改革这些独立于部长做出决策和提供公共服务的“独立机构”，这是苏格兰行政和威尔士议会政府以前解决的一个问题。在激烈的辩论之后，是英国政府民主问责、效率和组织的重要问题。在当前的经济、金融和政策挑战、赤字削减以及将公共服务的更大责任转嫁给公民和志愿组织的雄心的背景下，这些措施尤为重要。当前关于英国长臂机构的辩论为政策制定者和学术研究人员提出了一些重要的问题：1.面对政治和公众的敌意，为什么长臂机构如此持久？2.为什么现在改革是可能的，这是一个明显的英国现象吗？3.紧缩气氛对长臂机构的持久性和改革有何影响？4.改革长臂机构对部长、议会、公务员和使用他们服务的组织和个人？5.是否有其他方法可以将行政或咨询权下放给独立机构，以及国际和地方一级的发展可以教给我们什么？我们的研究将跟踪联合政府改革独立机构的发展和实施情况，并将其与英国权力下放政府内部、地方和国际层面的发展情况进行比较。它将考虑所涉及的法律、宪法和行政问题，也将考虑重塑和缩小国家所涉及的更广泛的政治。这项研究有五个鲜明的特点：1.它将汇集那些在先前的ALB研究中采用不同但互补的方法的领先学者，以比较的视角开发新的理论来解释威斯敏斯特制度中的代理设计。它已经制定，并将与政策界的伙伴密切合作，特别是下议院公共行政特别委员会、公共主席论坛、地方政府新闻股和行政长官协会。它将在一种独特而强大的混合方法设计中采用先进的定量和定性技术，这是以前在该领域中未曾采用的。4.它将通过整合跨国家和多层次的数据，克服白蛋白研究中的单一国家、国家一级的偏见。这将促进与政策界的知识交流，并增加研究的影响。5.它将促进有关机构设计的民主挑战以实现政策的学者之间的国际对话。