‘Crisis what crisis?’ Understanding the recurring problems of the British state

Abstract

This article seeks to explain the current crises besetting the UK state, arguing their seeds can be traced back to past failures to reform Britain’s pre-modern state arrangements. We argue the perpetuation of a political cutlure organised round the highly centralising British Political Tradition has proved increasingly incompatible with a fragmented governance landscape driven by forty years of New Public Management informed reforms. We posit this has led to an incoherent state reflected in a dysfunctional approach to public administration. The fault resides with successive governments attempting to deal with governance weaknesses through incremental, rather than system-wide reform. Muddling through has proved insufficient to resolving the deep structural problems in UK governance. We conclude that only a wholesale rethink and reform of the UK’s governance arrangements will resolve the current crises afflicting Britian’s antiquated state.