Policy entrepreneurship in UK central government: The behavioural insights team and the use of randomized controlled trials
| Published date | 01 July 2014 |
| Date | 01 July 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0952076713509297 |
| Author | Peter John |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Public Policy and Administration
2014, Vol. 29(3) 257–267
!The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0952076713509297
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Article
Policy entrepreneurship
in UK central
government:
The behavioural insights
team and the use of
randomized controlled
trials
Peter John
Department of Political Science, University College London, UK
Abstract
What factors explain the success of the UK Cabinet Office’s Behavioural Insights Team?
To answer this question, this article applies insights from organizational theory, particu-
larly accounts of change agents. Change agents are able—with senior sponsorship—to
foster innovation by determination and skill: they win allies and circumvent more trad-
itional bureaucratic procedures. Although Behavioural Insights Team is a change
agent—maybe even a skunkworks unit—not all the facilitating factors identified in the
literature apply in this central government context. Key factors are its willingness to
work in a non-hierarchical way, skills at forming alliances, and the ability to form good
relationships with expert audiences. It has been able to promote a more entrepreneur-
ial approach to government by using randomized controlled trials as a robust method of
policy evaluation.
The paper was first presented at the UK Political Studies Association Annual conference, Cardiff, 25–27
March 2013, to the Public Administration Specialist Group Panel 2: ‘Explaining Regulation: Networks,
Coalitions and Nudges’. I very much appreciate the excellent comments and questions I received at the
session. I also benefited from an exchange of drafts and a telephone call with Peter Robbins, UCD
Business School, who was working on the same topic. I particularly thank Owain Service from the
Behavioural Insights Team for his comments on the first draft of this paper. The materials presented
here were largely conveyed during interviews for the study, Nudging Citizens Towards Localism (2012),
funded by the British Academy, so I give thanks to the Academy and to the interviewees in that study. I
also drew insights from attending meetings of the Academic Advisory Panel of the Behavioural Insights
Team of which I am a member. I thank my fellow members and officials at the team for tolerating what
I hope was an unobtrusive form of participant observation. No one associated with BIT is responsible
for any of the content of the paper, which is based on my personal observations alone.
Corresponding author:
Peter John, Department of Political Science, University College London, Gower Street, London
WC1E 6BT, UK.
Email: peter.john@ucl.ac.uk
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