Book Notes
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9248.00087 |
| Published date | 01 June 1997 |
| Date | 01 June 1997 |
| Subject Matter | Book Notes |
Book Notes
British Politics
Rowena E. Archer and Simon Walker (eds), Rulers and Ruled in Late Medieval England:
Essays Presented to Gerald Harriss (London, Hambledon, 1995), xxvii 270 pp:,
£37.50 ISBN 1 85285 133 3.
This festschrift collection of fourteen essays is a quali®ed success. It is very good indeed when
dealing with major political issues; but one paper (on diet) is wholly irrelevant; and fouressays fall
somewhere between the two extremes: disputed mortgages, acquisition of estates, wills and family
circles all have something to say on the power structures of late medieval England and necessarily
accentuate the central importance of land, but in the process an opportunity is lost to present a
comprehensive survey of high politics. Furthermore, the `ruled' element of the book is not the
lumpenproletariat or even the bourgeoisie, but almost exclusively the great magnates and ocers
of state: it is their relations with the monarch of the day that provide the political discourse of the
title. Signi®cant essays on parliamentary restoration, the role of courtiers, the commons and royal
®nances, views on kingship and factional struggles are all explored with the focus on the exercise
and distribution of power. These essaysmake clear that the very dierent political structures of late
medieval England in no way delineate its political life as alien in concept or comprehension to our
own times: ultimate power was enshrined in law and was, in its own way, duly accountable.
SEAN McGLYNN
London School of Economics and Political Science
Peter Barberis, The Elite of the Elite: Permanent Secretaries in the British Higher Civil
Service (Aldershot, Dartmouth, 1996), xix 282 pp:, £39.50 ISBN 1 85521 479 2.
The author from Manchester Metropolitan Universityhas converted his thesis into an authoritative
book about permanent secretaries since 1830. He reveals their changing roles in advising ministers,
running departments and accounting to parliament, and how theyused their time. He exposes their
changing social and educational characteristics, and how they reached the top, their experience of
the outside world, their mobility within the civil service, and their knowledge of their departments'
business. A ®nal section considers their contribution to governmentalperformance and their place
within the constitution. With a sure grasp of history and statistical analysis he demolishes
fashionable generalizations and puts recent developments in perspective. If there is a change of
government it will be fascinating to see if it will accept all current permanent secretaries, and
whether they will be required to account openly to select committees for the advice they give
to ministers, and even to the opposition. His themes are that events triumph over ideas and
designs, and that ocials are only as eective as their political masterslet them be. His revelations
(pp. 127± 8) about the in¯uence of Patrick (now Lord) Jenkin over appointments isintriguing. Are
there more revelations to come?
GEORGE W. JONES
London School of Economics and Political Science
Peter Barberis (ed.), The Whitehall Reader (Buckingham, Open University Press, 1996),
ix 294 pp:, £45.00 ISBN 0 335 19312 9, £14.99 pbk ISBN 0 335 19311 0.
The British higher civil service is currently the subject of much debate. The 1990s have witnessed a
number of well publicized episodes ± including the dismissal of the chief executive of the Prison
Service and the Scott Report on the sale of arms to Iraq ± which have given rise to serious concern
#Political Studies Association 1997. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 CowleyRoad, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main
Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Political Studies (1997), XLV, 360±407
about the position of the higher civil service. Through a series of excerpts from books, journal and
newspaper articles, ocial documents and other sources, The Whitehall Reader provides a wide
range of views and opinions on the world of Whitehall and the issues raisedby recent developments.
After an introductory essay charting the main developments in the civil service since the appoint-
ment of the Fulton Committee in 1966, the readings are organized around sections covering the
structure and processes of Whitehall; the relationships between ministers and senior civil servants;
questions of loyalty and responsibility; the reformof Whitehall and the views of the critics; and the
relationships between the civil service, Parliament and the public. The book also includes a select
annotated bibliography drawing upon the vast and growingliterature on the civil service. Students
of British politics will ®nd this collection a valuable source on an increasingly important area.
TONY BUTCHER
Goldsmiths' College, University of London
Tim Butler and Mike Savage (eds), Social Change and the Middle Classes (London,
UCL Press, 1995), xii 388 pp:, £45.00 ISBN 185728 271 X, £16.95 pbk ISBN
1 85728 272 8.
Collections of papers are commonplace in the social sciences and inevitably risk being
disconnectedly disparate, but this volume largely avoids that fate. It is a long book, twenty
chapters, drawing on a wide rangeof authors, half of whom are sociologists, but its interest goes far
beyond sociology. Class in general and the working class in particular have received far more
attention than the middle class. Yet the latter is no less interesting or, indeed, important. It was, of
course, John Goldthorpe who gave prominenceto the term `service class' and this concept is widely
and usefully addressed throughout the book, including a `revisitation' by Goldthorpehimself. For
political scientists, however, electoral behaviourprovides the most frequent interest and this is well-
provided in a chapter by Anthony Heath and MikeSavage, but there is also an interesting chapter
by Paul Bagguley on middle class radicalism and new social movements and excellent coverage of
gender, space and consumption and the middle class. What is missing, asthe preface acknowledges,
are chapters on education and health. Nonetheless, this is a timely and valuable collection which
should be read by all those interested in Britain and British politics.
MICHAEL RUSH
University of Exeter
David Coates and John Hillard (eds), UK Economic Decline: Key Texts (Hemel
Hempstead, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1995), xiv 335 pp:, £13.95 pbk ISBN
0 13 342775 7.
David Coates and John Hillard haveedited a very useful collection of texts which look at a range of
issues concerning UK economic `under performance' in relation to other major industrial econo-
mies. As far as style is concerned, all contributions are easily accessible. In terms of coverage and
style this collection will do well as a text book at third-yearand postgraduate levels. As a whole this
book concentrates on identifying the various aspects of Britain's decline as well as the sources
explaining British backwardness in an OECD context. There can be no doubt that this is a relevant
book on an important problem: it is an indisputable fact thateconomic growth in Britain has been
signi®cantly lower than in other major economies. In other words, Great Britain has faced a set of
unique obstaclesto growth. The dierent authors in this collection emphasize dierent obstaclesand
the net result of this is a saturated, multi-factor model. However,while complexity may be closer to
reality it might not be particularly illuminating. It seems attractiveto situate this debate on Britain's
decline in a systematic comparative perspective. However, only some of the chapters follow this
researchstrategy. But a comparative design would havebeen able to do two crucial things at the same
time. First, a comparative strategy allows for a reduction of the relevant causal factors. Second, a
comparative strategy makes it possible to distinguish between those factors which are distinctively
British and those factors which form part of a global process of economic restructuration.
JENS PETER FRéLUND THOMSEN
University of Aarhus
Book Notes 361
#Political Studies Association, 1997
Brendan Evans and Andrew Taylor, FromSalisbury to Major: Continuity and Change in
Conservative Politics (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1996), vii 288 pp:,
£40.00 ISBN 0 7190 4290 9, £14.99 pbk ISBN 0 7190 4291 7.
This book provides a useful account of one hundred years of Conservative Party history. In
particular, the chapters up to the Heath era providea good summary of a large amount of material.
The main themes of the book are the adaptabilityof the Conservative Party, its relationship to mass
democracy and, despite its ability to change to meet electoral challenges, the consistencyof certain
themes in Conservative Party ideology. Thus the authors provide a useful reminder that many
elements of Thatcherism are not foreign or particularly new, and that the free market versus state
argument has been continually replayed within the Party.Many of the issues in the book have been
raised by other authors and morecould have been made of the narrative if it had been related to the
work of writers such as Greenleaf, Middlemas and Beer. The book seemed to shy away from
conceptual issues until the chapter on Thatcherism which sits rather uneasily with the earlier
sections by focusing on interpretations of Thatcherism rather than empirical details of the
government. Nevertheless, I think the book will be useful for introducing students to the
pre-Thatcher Conservative Party and for highlighting the adaptability of this most successful of
political parties.
MARTIN J. SMITH
University of Sheeld
Roger Jowell, John Curtice, Alison Park, Lindsay Brook and Daphne Ahrendt (eds),
British Social Attitudes: the 12th Report (Aldershot, Dartmouth, 1995), xvi 315 pp:,
£25.00 ISBN 1 85521 606 X.
The British Social Attitudes Surveys have established themselves as perhaps the most ambitious
attempt to study scienti®callyand systematically the attitudes of the British public on a more diverse
range of topics than any other survey,whether a panel, quota or, as in this case, a probability survey
of around 3,500 adults. As the BSA Surveys are nowin their thirteenth year and the 12th Report in
many cases compares the ®ndings of the 1994 survey with previoussurveys stretching back to 1983,
the reader ®nds an impressive collection of time-series datathat is particularly revealing on attitudes
on issues like taxation and welfare,European integration and faith in local and central government.
If facts can resolve arguments, the BSA should end discussions among political scientists on
fundamental questions such as whether partisan identi®cation is passed on from parent to child or
whether declining levels of trust in politicians bode ill for the stability of British democracy. The
®ndings on fear of crime, attitudes to working mothers, the expansion of higher education and
crime and punishment could contribute to a more informed discussion of these important issues.
Let us hope that our lawmakers also read this excellent volume.
DYLAN GRIFFITHS
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Robert Leach, Turncoats: Changing Party Allegiance by British Politicians (Aldershot,
Dartmouth, 1995), 291 pp:, £37.50 ISBN 1 85521 617 5.
Written just before the defections from the Conservative party of Alan Howarth, Emma Nicholson
and Peter Thurnham, Leach's book is both topical and interesting. Although by the time this
note comes out it will probably no longer be topical, it should still be interesting.The book's meat is
seven chapters, each of which focuses on an individual and the circumstances surrounding his
(never her) change of party: Joseph Chamberlain, Churchill, Mosley, MacDonald,Harold Nicolson
(a strange choice), Powell and Jenkins. Each chapter, though, ranges more widely than a simple
biographical sketch, attempting to discuss the wider changes in party alignment which were
threatening to take place at the time. This meat is surrounded by three more analytical thematic
chapters, including a disappointingly short conclusion. Although based almost exclusively on
secondary sources (Leach provides little or no new evidence about any of the individuals
concerned), the book neatly draws together aspects of diverse careers in a form not easily accessible
elsewhere. It is well written (read by this reviewer in a single sitting) and in paperback would be a
362 Book Notes
#Political Studies Association, 1997
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