Abstract
In this chapter we are concerned with the policy and decision-making process of British national politics, but only with the two main parties since none of the other parties has actually been in office since the Second World War. We may define policy as a deliberate course of action or inaction worked out by the leading figures of either of the two main parties with the help of others in order to define their political purposes and, to some extent, the methods by which they intend to achieve them. We may define decision making as an act by a Minister or Ministers collectively (and sometimes by civil servants in the name of Ministers) to select a particular course of action or inaction on a matter of public policy. Such definitions may seem rather abstract and general, but if they are to reflect the realities of modern British Government and politics, this is bound to be the case.
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Further reading
Ashford, D.E., Policy and Politics in Britain (Oxford: Blackwell, 1981).
Butler, D. et al., Failure in British Government (London: Oxford University Press, 1994).
Dynes, M. and Walker, D., The Times Guide to the New British State: The Government Machine in the 1990s (London, Times Books, 1995).
Healey, D., The Time of my Life (London: Michael Joseph, 1989).
Hennessy, P., Whitehall (London: Secker & Warburg, 1989).
James, S., British Government: A Reader in Policy Making (London: Routledge, 1997).
Kaufman, G., How To Be A Minister (London: Faber & Faber, 1997).
Lawson, N., The View from Number 11 (London: Bantam Press, 1992).
Rose, R., Ordinary People in Public Policy (London: Sage, 1989).
Sanders, D., Losing an Empire, Finding a Role — British Foreign Policy since 1945 (London: Macmillan, 1990).
Savage, S.P. et al., Public Policy in Britain (London: Macmillan, 1994).
Thompson, B. and Ridley, F.F. (eds), Under The Scott-Light (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).
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© 1999 F.N. Forman and N.D.J. Baldwin
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Forman, F.N., Baldwin, N.D.J. (1999). Policy and decision making. In: Mastering British Politics. Macmillan Master Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15045-8_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15045-8_19
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-76548-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-15045-8
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