Learning to govern: a typology of ministerial learning styles
Learning to govern: a typology of ministerial learning styles
A quirk of the Westminster system is that Ministers invariably have to ‘learn on the job’. Yet ‘learning’ has been surprisingly understudied in work on executive government in Britain especially. In this paper, we offer a systematic account of Ministerial learning based on a comprehensive analysis of the Ministers Reflect archive – the largest dataset of research interviews with former Westminster ministers ever assembled. We identify six distinct learning styles – incremental, risk-averse, managerial, creative, instrumental and instinctive – and assess the implications for how Ministers adjust to the challenges of high political office. We conclude by showing what an appreciation for this variety of Ministerial learning styles can offer the study and practice of executive government in Britain and beyond.
Boswell, John
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Smith, Jessica
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Devine, Daniel
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Corbett, Jack
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Boswell, John
34bad0df-3d4d-40ce-948f-65871e3d783c
Smith, Jessica
96f97364-8922-4e62-8581-0d2983052e20
Devine, Daniel
6bfa5a27-1b58-4c61-8eb0-a7a40860a4ae
Corbett, Jack
78ebdcd1-2594-4faa-a849-e334211533b0
Boswell, John, Smith, Jessica, Devine, Daniel and Corbett, Jack
(2024)
Learning to govern: a typology of ministerial learning styles.
Public Administration.
(In Press)
Abstract
A quirk of the Westminster system is that Ministers invariably have to ‘learn on the job’. Yet ‘learning’ has been surprisingly understudied in work on executive government in Britain especially. In this paper, we offer a systematic account of Ministerial learning based on a comprehensive analysis of the Ministers Reflect archive – the largest dataset of research interviews with former Westminster ministers ever assembled. We identify six distinct learning styles – incremental, risk-averse, managerial, creative, instrumental and instinctive – and assess the implications for how Ministers adjust to the challenges of high political office. We conclude by showing what an appreciation for this variety of Ministerial learning styles can offer the study and practice of executive government in Britain and beyond.
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Learning to Rule_PA_revision_clean[77]
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Accepted/In Press date: 27 February 2024
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Local EPrints ID: 487768
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/487768
ISSN: 0033-3298
PURE UUID: bc75ec65-ac36-436e-9fb5-e98a0e1fb83b
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Date deposited: 05 Mar 2024 17:48
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:54
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Contributors
Author:
Daniel Devine
Author:
Jack Corbett
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