BOOK NOTES
| Published date | 01 December 1953 |
| Date | 01 December 1953 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1953.tb01717.x |
BOOK
NOTES
Government Statistical Services
H.M.
Stationery Office. 1953. Pp. 28.
1s. 3d.
A
VERY
clear and informative booklet
published for the Treasury about the
organisation and staff of the statistical
services of the British Government; the
statutory provisions covering collection
and publication
;
and methods
of
collection
and tabulation. Two appendices give
information in tabular form about the
general area of responsibility of each
Department for collection and the principal
statistical publications.
Whitleyism
:
A
Study
of
Joint
Consultation in the Civil Service
By
JAMES
CALLAGHAN,
M.P.
Fabian
Research Series
No.
159. Pp.
40.
2s.
THIS
is a very readable and well informed
account
of
the development and working
of Whitleyism in the Civil Service.
Though the sub-title implies that the
booklet is primarily about joint consultation
the author devotes less than a quarter of
his space to consultation in the normal
sense of the word. In large part this is
of
course because the two functions of
negotiation and consultation in the Civil
Service are both carried out by the same
Whitley machinery. There are Depart-
mental exceptions and one would have
wished to hear more about these and their
lessons for the Service generally. Mr.
Callaghan pays the following tribute to
Mr.
A.
J.
T.
Day, Chairman of the Staff
Side: “The success of the present
informal methods of negotiation owes a
great deal to his standing with his Staff
Side colleagues and the respect which is
felt for him by Treasury officials.”
Workers and Management
:
The
German Co-determination Experiment
By
T.
E.
M. MCKITTERICK and R. D.
V.
ROBERTS. Fabian Research Series
NO.
160. Pp. 32. 1s. 3d.
THIS
is a very useful account of the
history and present operation of
Mit-
bestimmung
(worker participation in man-
agement) in German industry. The
authors are quite frank about the problems
involved though they see these largely
from the viewpoint of the trade
unions
and
not of the management. The trade unions
are short of qualified people to act
as
their management representatives
;
par-
ticipation in management may limit the
representatives’ action because
of
the
secrecy involved; and may weaken the
desire of unions for socialisation and
indeed weaken their unity.
So
far as the
lessons for Britain are concerned the
authors are worried about participation
limiting the freedom of the trade unions
without giving them any effective say in
management. Their conclusion is that in
the conditions of present day Britain
“
it
is
more important to aim at effective
consultation than at more direct control,
since the unions are thus left free to use
their direct influence through the tradi-
tional mechanisms.
. . .
To introduce co-
determination on the German lines into
British industry would run the risk
of
obscuring the eventual issues of ownership
and public control.
. . .”
Comparative Public Administration
:
An Outline
of
Topics and Readings
By
LYNTON
K.
CALDWELL. Graduate
Programme in Public Administration
(Albany,
N.Y.).
Pp.
50
(mim.).
IN
essence this is an extremely useful
select bibliography of writings about the
Public Officials
of
most of the countries
of the world, other than the United
States.
On
some points it goes a little
wider, but it cannot claim to live up to its
title. The author has wisely confined his
choice to books and journals likely to be
available in a good library in the United
States and has not cluttered up his pages
with tantalising references to lesser known
periodicals. Judging by the references
in
the British section (one-quarter of the
whole) he has done a good job even though
a number of minor errors have crept in
and there are several notable gaps.
Parliamentary Papers
Hansard‘s Catalogue and Breviate of,
1696-1834. Reprinted in Facsimile
with an Introduction by
P.
and G.
FORD.
Basil Blackwell (Oxford). Pp. xv+220.
Quarto. 40s.
Select List of, 1833-1899, by
P.
and
G.
FORD.
Basil Blackwell (Oxford). Pp.
xxii+165. 27s. 6d.
PROFESSOR
and Mrs. Ford put students
of the history of public administration
432
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