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Public Administration System of UNITED KINGDOM and its reforms
By SELEMAN PHARLES MABALA
2019
United Kingdom is a unitary state under parliamentary monarch as its form of state.
However, some powers have been delegated to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
(UK gov 2019). The king or Queen (now Queen Elizabeth II) is a head of state for
ceremonial activities, but all the government activities are under the Prime minister (Now
Theresa May). The country does not have a single written constitution, rather it relies on
various sources such as case laws made by judges, statutory law and international
treaties. Members of parliament are voted by people to represent them, whereby through
the voted members the Prime minister is found from the party with high share of MPs. The
country is Parliamentary democracy with a Parliament which has the absolute sovereignty
on its own. Although the parliament makes the law and judges interpret these laws, but,
still the court can overturn some laws which infringe some basic rights of the people (Law,
2013).
State structure
According to the unwritten constitution of UK the country is unitary state with some small
degrees of federation due to the presence of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. It is
vertical decision oriented on its state structure. Most of the decisions come from the
central government which is under Theresa May the Prime minister through her political
party Conservative Party.
Effect on reform
Fast and general in reforms due to its vertical structure as a unitary state, but also because
of its consensus practice (but officially and commonly it is known as Majoritarian) the
reforms take much long time and resources. However, the positive side is that when
reforms are passed, they stay longer and strong for example the reforms under Margaret
Thatcher.
Due to absence of single written constitution the reforms are easy to be made just
depending on supporters from especially the majority party in the house of commons.
Also, this helps in making changes without needing a long process of changing or referring
to the constitution.
Executive government
Description
The country is a multi-party system with a 5 years term election period. UK is a
Majoritarian where one party gains majority in the house of commons makes the
government but with consensus structure in policy making practices (Cairney, 2018) in for
example the BREXIT under Theresa may and Reforms under Margaret Thatcher the
decisions were/are somehow consensus due to the referendum processes
Effect on reform.
It takes much longer time in making reforms in UK since it goes through lots of processes
to convince the public for example the recently BREXIT- Deal. However, the consensus
system has lots of advantages including the high possibility of a reform to survive longer
period without sudden changes for example the Margret Thatcher’s reforms in 1970/1980s
which kept existing regardless of changes in regimes.
Minister/ mandarin relations
Description
There is a clear division between political leaders and civil servants in UK (Pollittand
Bouckaert 2011). Civil servants under Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010,
the civil service codes gives civil servants traditional and statutory guidance which protect
them from being used by politicians for their advantages (Tullo 2010).
Effect on reform
The trustee type makes reforms hard and much time taking because always politicians
have slightly different purposes from Civil servants who are supposed to be neutral. In
other way this type gives much confidence to civil servants in their decisions. Also, the
reforms result to professional impacts which are benefits to the public rather than political
results for few, good example is the 2013 Financial Reform on U.K. Banks and Insurance
Companies (Parise and Shenai (2018)), professionals of economics and accounting
contributed much than politicians and it helped in the economy of UK.
Administrative culture
Description
The UK government under its parliament makes the laws and the judges do interpret the
laws. Its statutory system always Laws to be made out of grievances in the society brought
by individuals, representatives in the legislature. According to Hofstede’s scores UK is
among the highly individualized country and hence individuals such as civil servant do not
depend their decisions much to politicians, confidence is what leads them to stand on their
decisions. For example also UK is a relatively low Power Distance country hence,
Hofstede (1983:6O) characterizes such as country with the notion that all people should
have equal rights, the system is to blame for things that go wrong, the way to change a
social system is by redistributing power, People at both high and low power levels feel
less threatened more prepared to trust people, There is latent harmony between the
powerful and the powerless and also cooperation among the powerless Cooperation
among the powerless can be based on solidarity.
Effect on reform
Since the laws come from the public and a written out the situation the public is facing
then they have a higher degree of serving the interest of the people and being current. In
relation to Hofstede’s national culture scores (Hofstede 1983:61) UK has relatively high
scores on Uncertainty Avoidance and hence it is characterized with a strong need for
consensus, a need for written rules and regulations as well as a belief in experts and their
knowledge. All these makes the reform easy and manageable to take place as it does not
confuse people in relation to their culture. Conclusively as on page 68 Hofstede puts it
bluntly that With a high UAI society like UK we should find a relative predominance of
security over risk taking, Therefore the reforms in UK analyze critically the cons and pros
before implementing.
Diversity of Policy Advise
Description
In UK there is a huge diversity on the policy advice. UK is not limited to being in partnership
with other people or agencies in making new polices (Cairney, 2018), this included political
parties, executives, ministers, public servants, consultants, scientists, think tanks, OECD,
EU. Good example is the current advertisement from Ministry of Justice looking for two
Policy Advisors on UK EU Exit plan (Ministry of Justice UK (2019)
Effect on reform.
Possibility of new and strong ideas from various parts. Also due to the fact that it involves
many actors in policies there is a high degree of the reform to be genuine and being
accepted. Most reforms in UK are done by involving many people and hence it makes
easy for the reforms to keep existing since the public sees the reality form
Potential country grouping
From the characteristics presented above for UK, I think and I am even supported by other
scholars (Pollitt and Bouckaert 2011) that at least UK and New Zealand are referred as
Anglo-Saxon. These countries share some characteristics and probably because they
share some political history. Also as Kuhlmann and Wollmann‐ (2011) suggests, Ireland
is among this group too due to its Administrative tradition and culture as well as Political
institutional features of administrative structures
Conclusion
Taking into account that regimes are under politicians, sometimes form of government
attain slight changes from the constitution. For example, we have seen UK is Majoritarian
but in practices it goes in the direction of consensus and this can be for the purpose of
gaining more confidence form the public. All in all, the system which separates politicians
and civil servants have various advantages as it gives confidence to the workers and also
it is not easy to a reform to experience regular changes (which are politically
advantageous). The concept of politicians and civil servants being separate makes the
government being run without political bias, however if the degree of freedom and resilient
of Legislature and the Executive in UK would be totally separate like how it is in USA, then
UK the government would be more even stronger and genuine it is decisions.
References
1. Hofstede, Geert (1983) National Cultures in Four Dimensions: A Research-Based
Theory of Cultural Differences among Nations. International Studies of
Management and Organization, Taylor & Francis, Ltd: 13, . 1/2, 46-74
2. Jordan, A.G. and Richardson, J.J. (1982) ‘The British Policy Style or the Logic of
Negotiation?’, in
Richardson Policy Styles in Western Europe, London: Allen and Unwin
3. Kuhlmann, S., & Wollmann, H. (2014). Introduction to comparative public
administration: Administrative systems and reforms in Europe. Edward Elgar
Publishing.
4. Marsicano, Christopher R. (2016) The Political System of the United Kingdom: An
introduction to the
politics and parties of Great Britain Microteaching – UK Politics: 1-41
5. Ministry of Justice UK (2019) Policy Advisors - Legal Services EU Exit Retrieved
on 25 Feb 2019 at 1852hrs from
https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi?jcode=1610732
6. Parise, Teresa Valeria and Shenai Vijay (2018) The Value Effect of Financial
Reform on U.K. Banks and Insurance Companies International Journal of Financial
Times,
7. Paul, Cairney, Policy Styles in the UK: majoritarian UK versus devolved consensus
democracies? (2018)
from Michael Howlett and Jale Tosun (2018) Policy Styles and Policy-Making:
Exploring the National
Dimension London: Routledge
8. Pollitt, C. and G. Bouckaert. 2011. Public‐ Management Reform. Comparative
Analysis of New Public Management, Governance and the Neo Weberian State.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. Teacher, Law (2013) The UK System of Government retrieved on 25 Feb 2018 at
1442hrs from https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/constitutional-law/the-
uk-system-of-government-constitutional-law-essay.php
10. Tullo, Carol, (2010) Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010: Statutory
basis for management of the civil service :The Stationery office Limited under the
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from https://www.gov.uk/government/how-government-works#how-government-
is-run
