The Treasury and Britain's Decline
| Author | Colin Thain |
| Date | 01 December 1984 |
| Published date | 01 December 1984 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1984.tb01547.x |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Political
Studies
(1984),
XXXII,
581-595
The Treasury and Britain’s Decline*
COLIN
THAIN
University
of
Exeter
This article concentrates
on
explanations
of
Britain’s economic decline which
highlight the role of the Treasury. There is inconclusive evidence that stop-go
financial policies and low investment have contributed to low growth. It is argued
that foreign economic policy delayed the modernization of the economy. Although
officials influence day-to-day strategy and the creation of instrumentation, the
collegiate nature
of
decision-making means that civil service influence is hard
to
assess. The Treasury is constrained by pressure groups and by other departments in
Whitehall. These constraints are examined with reference to the Medium-Term
Financial Strategy. Finally, there are long-term reasons for Britain’s decline and these
do not originate in any one institution.
It
is not possible to analyse the role of the
Treasury in isolation.
The peculiar strengths and weaknesses of the civil service, and of the
Treasury
in
particular,
form
a
powerful contributory cause
of
our decline.
Sidney Pollardl
1.
Decline
Academics like journalists are fascinated by failure. This may explain why
so
much energy has been expended analysing Britain’s economic decline. It also
makes
a
good story: why did Britain slump from being the leading industrial
nation in Europe after the Second World War to one of the poorest in the
1980s?
Who is responsible?
Most of the debate has been based on the assumption that Britain is in
decline.2 This is not immediately apparent. Britain’s economic growth since the
war has been higher than earlier periods. For most people, living standards have
risen faster than at any time in history and social provision has been extended
and impr~ved.~ But that there has been relative economic decline, there is no
*
This article was prepared whilst
I
was in the Graduate School in Government, University of
Manchester. This paper is the by-product of ESRC-funded
Ph.D.
research into the Medium-Term
Financial Strategy. It is
a
revised version of a paper originally presented to the PSA Annual
Conference at the University of Newcastle in April
1983.
I
am grateful to Maurice Wright, Peter
Walters, participants in the Public Policy and Administration Seminar at the University
of
Manchester, and this Journal’s anonymous assessors, for their comments.
1
S.
Pollard,
The Wasting
of
the British
Economy
(London, Croom Helm,
1982),
p.
159.
2
See for example the optimistic views of B. D. Nossiter,
Britain
A
Future that Works
(London,
Andre Deutsch,
1978).
3
A flavour of this kind of argument can be found in
R.
Dahrendorf,
On
Britain
(London, BBC,
1982);
and in the chapters by Rose and Gwyn in W. B. Gwyn and R. Rose (eds),
Britain: Progress
and Decline
(London, Macmillan,
1980).
0032-3217/84/04/058 1- 15/$03.00
0
1984
Political
Studies
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