The Civil Service Reform In Thatcher Government

In 1979, Mrs Thatcher came to power and reformed the British civil service radically and enduringly.The pecific measures included Rayner Scrutiny Programme, the Management Information Systems for Ministers, the Financial Management Initiative and the Next Steps Initiative. Thatcher government has reformed the personnel regulations, administrative structure, organisational function and processes of the traditional civil service so widely that some of the important principles and core features have wavered, and the reform in the 1980s laid the foundation for the subsequent reform of the civil service in Major government and Blair government, determining the basic direction of the reform. The reform involves a broad range of the civil service systems, which is rare in history and is " a milestone" in the history of the British civil service systems after Fulton reform. What is worth mentioning is that, during the same period compared to the Western countries, the civil service system reform of Thatcher government is indeed the first and the most radical reform in Europe, and in the international community it has had a far-reaching impact on the civil service systems in many countries. The last two decades of the 20th century, the civil service reforms in many countries were affected by the British civil service system reforms of the Thatcher government.General review briefly introduced some characteristics and the evolution of the British civil service, the significance of studying the British civil service both at home and abroad and the writing ideas of this article.The body text is divided into five parts.First, the context of the civil service reform of Thatcher government. Since the second half of the 20th century, with the changes of the United Kingdom from the industrial society to a post-industrial society and the advent of the era of globalization, the limitations of the civil service were increasingly exposed and the traditional civil service was unable to meet the needs of the new era. With the civil service scale's growing, bloated bodies,generalists'incompetent in professional government work, the inflexible structure of the system and serious bureaucratic model, the government policy is faced with many difficulties; the increased requirements for the people on the civil service ,the innovation achievements in private sector and the role of the mass medias forced the government to reform the civil service with strong pressures. At the same time, Thatcher government has accepted the theory of the "small government". All these above suggested it is a must to reform the civil service system.Second, the first stage of the civil service reform of Thatcher government.During this period, Thatcher government laid particular focus on the bureaucratic inefficiency and poured the administrative and managerial techniques into the management to the civil service at large. Rayner Scrutiny Programme was the first big measure that Margaret Thatcher took to reform the civil service after she came to power and the first large-scale, in-depth and scientific research on the function of the British Government institutions, thereby providing first-hand information, useful experience and specific proposals for future reform. The Management Information Systems for Ministers and Financial Management Initiative were the systems of information collection and treatment, which included the methods of modern management and performance evaluation and the responsibility of how to obtain the target. And the system greatly improved the efficiency of various departments and provided a possibility of flatting the structure of the civil service system. The implementation of these measures achieved the desired results. Now the civil service not only is the outcome of the continuing reform but also lays the foundation for the reform in future.Third, the second stage of the civil service reform of Thatcher government. The reform of this period, mainly referring to Margaret Thatcher's third term of office (1987-1991), is of great importance.In this period, Thatcher government aimed to the privatization and decentralization of the public sector as well as the introduction of market mechanisms into the public sector, and the civil service reform obtained substantive progress. The main measure called the Next Steps Initiative has greatly changed the British civil service. By doing so, some basic principles of the civil service which the traditional civil service was always based on have been tremendously changed. In particular, Thatcher government has set up many executive agencies in all kinds of departments, which enjoyed considerable freedom of action in the realm of recruitment, promotion, training, salaries and wellfare. In the past, all these powers were adhered to the commission. So, the establishment of the executive agencies, fundamentally shaking the basis of the civil service,was a sign of decentralization. Ever after, the executive agencies took over the management of the low-level civil servants, such as recruitment, promotion, training, salaries and wellfare. The appointment of senior civil servants was in the more tendency of individuals than before. In the civil service, there was a suspicion breaking the neutralty. The reform changed the relationship of the minister and senior civil servants. Before the reform, senior civil servants were anonymous and the minister had responsibility for the commons and the public on the behalf of the department that the senior civil servants adhered to. But now, the senior civil servants often show their faces in public in the interest of the government or their department. What's more, the loyalty the traditional civil service must have to the government and the confidentiality the tradition civil service must keep for the government have wavered .Fourth, the evaluation of the civil service reform of Thatcher government. The enormous changes of the civil service in Thatcher government had an obvious influence on the development of society and economy: the civil service reform during the period has made the civil service more resistant to corruption and efficient, and the optimization of the civil service system and the change of the civil service culture paved the way for Thatcher government to implement radical reforms in politics and economy, contributing to get rid of the "British disease". After John Major succeeded Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister,he continued to deepen the civil service reform and established a senior civil service system; Blair government continuously reformed the civil service system on the basis of the previous reforms. Although he deliberately labeled his theory newly,hoping to compete against Thatcherism, its main theory is still from Thatcherism and is the continuation other than innovation. Internationally, the civil service reform of Thatcher Government set off a new climax in the civil service reform using the new public management as a guide. The reform programmes advocated by the Next Steps were emulated by other countries.Fifth, analysing why Thatcher government's reform in the civil service brought about a great success. The reasons why Thatcher government managed to reform the British civil service successfully are that the public in Britain desired for reforming the civil service and that with the new public management as a ideological and theoretical guidance, Thatcher government implemented the Next Steps Initiative in the central sectors and established executive agencies on the premise of making a breakthrough of the traditional structure and core features of the civil service and that Margaret Thatcher, with her strong leadership and organizational authority,chose a good way to push the civil service reform forward continuously.Conclusion mainly specified some regular conclusions and useful revelations shown in the process of Thatcher Government's civil service reform. Firstly, the reform of the British civil service is a gradual process, where both inheritance and initiative lie. Secondly, with the civil service system reform of Thatcher government for more than 10 years, we can clearly see that the new public management ideology played a dominant role in the process of the reform. While ideology is a response to the objective conditions, we should note the guiding and restrictive role that ideology has played in the British civil service reform, which is the second revelation from the British civil service reform. At the same time, any initiative may result in many new problems, some of which perhaps root in the self-contradictory guiding theory, which itself has many problems and some others of which are not expected consequently. No matter what the problems are, they must be solved or reasonably combined with each other by continuing to deepen the reform. Only in this way, will the outcome of the civil service reform be preserved and sustainably developed forward.