The Politics of Agency Death: Ministers and the Survival of Government Agencies in a Parliamentary System

James, Oliver; Petrovsky, Nicolai; Moseley, Alice; Boyne, George Alexander

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2431725

Cited by 20 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…While these changes reflect what really happens to these public organizations, their status, functions and form, above all they signal important political acts representing political control over the public sector. To indicate the subtle variety, one can discern between different 'termination types', such as termination by change of form, termination by merger or termination by acquisition of activity (James et al 2015). It is important that no changes go by unnoticed because ignoring name changes and other events such as change of superior organization may mask important discontinuities.…”

Section: The Political Control Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…James et al (2015) consider an organization not terminated when its name changes but when its Bgovernance structure (of defined roles for managers formally leading an organization and associated accountability mechanisms) has been ended^(p. 8). The James et al (2015) definition deviates so much from other definitions used, that it is impossible to say what implications it has for the comparability of the termination rate. The number of terminations in their study is so high though (109 of 153 organizations in 23 years, which adds up to 71%) that it might indicate a bias in favor of discontinuation.…”

Section: Research Designs and Termination Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies mention the 'regulatory function' of an organization as particularly important (Lewis 2002(Lewis , 2004James et al 2015). We have included both types here, in distinct hypotheses, because the assumed direction of influence on survival is different.…”

Section: A Model Of Organizational Survival In the Public Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, existing research on survival in the public sector does take into account how the odds of termination are affected by political and economic indicators (Lewis 2002(Lewis , 2004Boin et al 2010;Park 2013;James et al 2015). These studies hypothesize that a conservative political climate leads to slimming the public sector, and that turnover in general is likely to affect survival of organizations in a negative way because incoming elects will probably attack the creations of their predecessors.…”

Section: A Model Of Organizational Survival In the Public Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Starting with Herbert Kaufman's seminal Are Government Organizations Immortal? (1976), scholars on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond studied the transformation of government-including the survival of public organizations Hogwood 1988, 1991;Lewis 2002Lewis , 2004Carpenter and Lewis 2004;Adam et al 2007;Boin et al 2010Boin et al , 2016Rolland and Roness 2011;Park 2013;MacCarthaigh 2014;James et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Coming to Terms with Termination of Public Organizations

2017

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Why do some public organizations survive and others do not? The bureaucratic retrenchment efforts since the 1980s showed public administration scholars that the structure of the state has its own demography. Yet studies on the survival of public organizations tested different hypotheses using different methods and definitions. This review article reflects on the consequences of different takes on termination, it compares and reports on the main findings thus far and argues that we should study organizational survival focusing on transitions to build on existing empirical work.

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Section: The Political Control Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Designs and Termination Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Model Of Organizational Survival In the Public Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Model Of Organizational Survival In the Public Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coming to Terms with Termination of Public Organizations

2017

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The politics of institutionalizing preventive health

Boswell

Cairney

Denny

2019

Social Science & Medicine

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Prevention is an attractive idea to policymakers in theory, particularly in health where the burden of spending and care is increasingly taken up by complex and chronic conditions associated with lifestyle choices. However, prevention in general, and preventative health in particular, has proven hard to implement in practice. In this paper, we look to one tangible legacy of the recent rise of the prevention agenda: agencies with responsibility for preventative health policy. We ask how this form of institutionalizing preventative health happens in practice, and what consequences it has for the advancement of the prevention agenda. We draw on qualitative data to compare the trajectories of newly formed agencies in Australia, New Zealand and England. We find that building and maintaining legitimacy for such agencies may come at the expense of quick progress or radical action in service of the prevention agenda.

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Democratic Accountability and the Politics of Mass Administrative Reorganization

Bertelli¹,

Sinclair²

2016

Brit. J. Polit. Sci.

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Governments face different incentives when they reorganize many administrative agencies at one time rather than making infrequent, case-by-case changes. This article develops a theory of mass administrative reorganizations, which posits that the politics of reorganization is focused on government accountability. Viewing mass reorganization as a structured decision, it argues that choices about independence, agency organization and functional disposition have different impacts on the political costs of administrative policy making. Analyzing novel data from a recent British reorganization with sequential logistic statistical models provides substantial support for these claims. The study challenges the focus on organizational survival in the existing literature. By eschewing more fundamental political questions of democratic accountability, the prevailing approach masks essential politics, and in the context of this study, all influence of conflict due to party and agency policy positions.

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The Politics of Agency Death: Ministers and the Survival of Government Agencies in a Parliamentary System

Cited by 20 publications

References 46 publications

Coming to Terms with Termination of Public Organizations

Coming to Terms with Termination of Public Organizations

The politics of institutionalizing preventive health

Democratic Accountability and the Politics of Mass Administrative Reorganization

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