On Civil Service Reform During Margaret Thatcher Government And Its Ideological Origins

As the birthplace of modern civil service system, the United Kingdom has always stayed in the focus of world's attention. Margaret Thatcher's radical and enduring reforms on civil service system in particular have imposed far-reaching influence both in Britain and across the world, rendering British civil service the model for other nations once again. Thus, it is of extreme significance to conduct a systematic analysis of British civil service reform, with an aim for a profound understanding on the theoretical logic of western civil service reforms. In this paper, the author first adopts a historical approach as for the introduction of the history of British civil service reforms, with an emphasis on the reform measures taken by the Thatcher Government. What follows is the in-depth discussion about the ideological origins for Thatcher's reforms, from which the author draws implications for its application in China's civil service reform.In the first chapter, a brief review is carried out on the history of British civil service reforms, together with the introduction on the background of Thatcher's reforms. The release of Northcote-Trevelyan Report in the mid-19th century marked the establishment of British modern civil service system. However, in the 20th century, the civil service system as well as its civil servants began to be the target of public criticism. Finally the issuance of Fulton Report in the 1960's initiated a modern reform for British civil service. In the latter half of the 20th century, the economical and fiscal crisis as well as the changes in social structure reduced the British government into plight; meanwhile, the drawbacks within civil service system such as its overstaffed organization, generalist system and deteriorating bureaucracy led to the civil service reform.In the second chapter, an in-depth exploration is conducted on Thatcher's reforms, with reform measures such as the Rayner Scrutiny Program, and Next Steps. The Rayner Scrutiny Program is a large-scale survey about British government operation, which provides the following reforms with beneficial lessons and concrete suggestions; while the implementation of Next Steps, especially the establishment of Executive Agencies shakes the civil service in its fundamental sense. It can be concluded that Thatcher's reforms result in a substantial transformation in the civil service, symbolizing a rupture with the traditions. Its far-reaching and world-sweeping impacts render the reform a model for other nations to follow in the last two decades of the 20th century.In the third chapter, a thorough discussion is held on the ideological origins of Thatcher's reforms, in which the conservatism and gradualism cultural traditions play a definitive role for the civil service reform while Margaret Thatcher's conviction politics as well as British political cultures such as limitation on government power, the particularity of government operation and the pursuit of administrative values help facilitate the civil service reform. In the end, the author analyzes the effects and problems of Thatcher's reforms, with implications drawn on China's future civil service reform. In the author's opinion, the study on Thatcher's civil service reform not only helps a better comprehension about British civil service system, which is conducive to the exploration of its law of development, but also serves as an inspirational reference to China's civil service reform.