History as Expertise and the Influence of Political Culture on Advice for Policy Since Fulton

Green, Alix

doi:10.1080/13619462.2014.953485

Cited by 23 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…This was during the tenure of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990), when the political advice received by her cabinet shifted to political appointees, special advisers and right‐wing think tanks (James, 1986; Lewis, 2011; Yong, 2014). A preference for ‘instinct and common sense’ replaced expertise during both Thatcher's and Major's premierships (Green, 2014). Exley (2014, 181) describes how the Department of Education and Science was deliberately encouraged to break the Whitehall consensus model by Margaret Thatcher, Keith Joseph and Kenneth Baker.…”

Section: Focusing On Think Tank Evidence In the Changing Landscape Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Conservative Party sharpened its populist tone on education during the 2000s, creating oppositions between education experts and their establishments and the people represented by the party (Craske, 2021). The description by Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education (2010–2014) who implemented the Academies Act (2010), of education experts as ‘a blob’ opposing reform exemplifies the diminishing importance of external policy experts, and specifically academics, to politicians (Green, 2014; Simons, 2015). This populist Conservative policy was opposed to quangos, or quasi‐departmental public bodies, which Gove and Cameron saw as elitist or bastions of ideology (Craske, 2021).…”

Section: Focusing On Think Tank Evidence In the Changing Landscape Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Politics of evidence: Think tanks and the Academies Act

Kauko

2022

British Educational Res J

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Previous research has identified political ideology as central in the landmark Academies Act (2010). This article further analyses how politics of evidence played its part in the policy process by focusing on long-term structural changes and preferences among policymakers. The article draws on policymaker interviews after the reform, a mapping of think tanks and a document analysis. The analysis shows that political-ideological preferences were derived from think tanks, and the Conservative manifesto built on skewed Swedish evidence in constructing an argument for the Act. The political choices morphed into fact-based arguments in the policy process. While think tanks had some reservations, in the Whitehall bureaucracy the argument was reformulated as a rational deliberation. This was possible because of the long-term change in the significance of think tanks, and how policymakers preferred politically informed opinions instead of research evidence. The conclusion argues that the evidence-based policy emphasis is an attempt to depoliticise the scope for political arguments.The political dynamic thus results in structurally empowered and layered but depoliticising use of evidence.

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Section: Focusing On Think Tank Evidence In the Changing Landscape Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Focusing On Think Tank Evidence In the Changing Landscape Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Politics of evidence: Think tanks and the Academies Act

Kauko

2022

British Educational Res J

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“…There were also two fascinating historical studies of the British civil service. Green examines the 1968 Fulton report, which made the case for reforming the civil service to meet the demands of modern government. She explores whether the Fulton recommendation for the creation of policy planning units in government departments, staffed by a mix of outside experts and talented officials, could be reimagined for present purposes to include historians: history embedded in policy‐making is proposed as an alternative to history presented to policy‐makers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%