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Power with purpose? Further reflections on strengthening the centre of government

Power with purpose? Further reflections on strengthening the centre of government
Power with purpose? Further reflections on strengthening the centre of government
On the 10 March 2024 the Commission on the Centre of Government published its final report: Power with Purpose. The aim of the commission had been to explore why No.10, the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury do not always work as well as they should and to explore what could be done to radically improve the centre of government. Perennial concerns about the existence of a ‘hollow Crown’ at the centre of British government were, the final report recommended, to be resolved through the implementation of a ‘radical’ reform agenda. This article interrogates the commission’s proposals from a critical perspective and builds upon existing concerns as to the viability of further centralising power in Whitehall. It achieves this by reflecting upon why an understanding of why (i) history, (ii) criticality, (iii) governance, (iv) evidence and (v) relationships matter when seeking to cope with complexity, or design genuinely ‘radical’ new governance capabilities. We argue that a full appreciation of these factors is essential to any project to strengthen the core executive, and offer a more balanced, relational, and systemic approach to nurturing strategic capacity in government.
0032-3179
Flinders, Matthew
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Ayres, Sarah
ece5d8f5-687c-4d3e-9dde-35f9befbf429
Boswell, John
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Cairney, Paul
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Durose, Catherine
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Elliott, Ian C.
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Martin, Steve
c909bb33-68ec-4b7d-8a96-b46556518977
Richardson, Liz
c4e98c2a-9051-43f3-be61-542e4df98dc1
Flinders, Matthew
d4982871-f267-4c51-a12b-1e0340ed4465
Ayres, Sarah
ece5d8f5-687c-4d3e-9dde-35f9befbf429
Boswell, John
34bad0df-3d4d-40ce-948f-65871e3d783c
Cairney, Paul
37e7accf-5b2f-4068-81cc-97b6ea7884e5
Durose, Catherine
9773692b-b486-404a-8c68-53652a252e31
Elliott, Ian C.
439eaa03-77fe-45bd-ae28-18d5ceda3858
Martin, Steve
c909bb33-68ec-4b7d-8a96-b46556518977
Richardson, Liz
c4e98c2a-9051-43f3-be61-542e4df98dc1

Flinders, Matthew, Ayres, Sarah, Boswell, John, Cairney, Paul, Durose, Catherine, Elliott, Ian C., Martin, Steve and Richardson, Liz (2024) Power with purpose? Further reflections on strengthening the centre of government. Political Quarterly. (In Press)

Record type: Article

Abstract

On the 10 March 2024 the Commission on the Centre of Government published its final report: Power with Purpose. The aim of the commission had been to explore why No.10, the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury do not always work as well as they should and to explore what could be done to radically improve the centre of government. Perennial concerns about the existence of a ‘hollow Crown’ at the centre of British government were, the final report recommended, to be resolved through the implementation of a ‘radical’ reform agenda. This article interrogates the commission’s proposals from a critical perspective and builds upon existing concerns as to the viability of further centralising power in Whitehall. It achieves this by reflecting upon why an understanding of why (i) history, (ii) criticality, (iii) governance, (iv) evidence and (v) relationships matter when seeking to cope with complexity, or design genuinely ‘radical’ new governance capabilities. We argue that a full appreciation of these factors is essential to any project to strengthen the core executive, and offer a more balanced, relational, and systemic approach to nurturing strategic capacity in government.

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Accepted/In Press date: 10 June 2024

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 491222
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/491222
ISSN: 0032-3179
PURE UUID: 17d6bdea-2a53-4a4e-9e10-90c7a68601e8
ORCID for John Boswell: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3018-8791

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Date deposited: 17 Jun 2024 17:04
Last modified: 18 Jun 2024 01:45

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Contributors

Author: Matthew Flinders
Author: Sarah Ayres
Author: John Boswell ORCID iD
Author: Paul Cairney
Author: Catherine Durose
Author: Ian C. Elliott
Author: Steve Martin
Author: Liz Richardson

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