The approaches and opinions of economists often dominate public policy discussion. Economists have gained this privileged position partly (or perhaps mainly) because of the obvious relevance of their subject matter, but also because of the unified methodology (neo-classical economics) that the...

Twenty-six Church of England bishops sit by right in the United Kingdom's Parliament, making laws. Why? And is there any coherent reason why this should continue, asks Iain McLean Copyright (c) 2010 The Author. Journal compilation (c) 2010 ippr.

This book suggests that the scope and breadth of regulatory reforms since the mid-1980s and particularly during the 1990s, are so striking that they necessitate a reappraisal of current approaches to the study of the politics of regulation. The authors call for the adoption of different and...

Studying spending over time requires reliable data. It is not clear that such data exist in the UK, however. The two published sources of functional spending numbers-the Office for National Statistics's 'blue book' and Her Majesty's Treasury's "Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses"...

The approaches and opinions of economists often dominate public policy discussion. Economists have gained this privileged position partly (or perhaps mainly) because of the obvious relevance of their subject matter, but also because of the unified methodology (neo-classical economics) that the...

The UK Government places ever-greater weight on performance assessment of local public bodies through comprehensive performance assessments (CPA). However, the CPA assessment framework has been criticised for its disregard of local factors that are beyond the control of local authorities but...

Aims to show that Adam Smith (1723-90), the author of "The Wealth of Nations", was not the promoter of ruthless laissez-faire capitalism that is frequently depicted. Smith's "right-wing" reputation was sealed after his death when it was not safe to claim that an author may have influenced the...