Core Executive Studies Two Decades On

Abstract

The concept of the 'core executive' was introduced by Dunleavy and Rhodes in 1990. Two decades on, what is the state of core executive studies? This article argues that the language of the study of central government has been transformed. In addition, there is now a much broader consideration of the central government space, incorporating ministers, civil servants, and so on.Within core executive studies, the resource-dependency approach has become dominant. Arguably, though, with its insistence on a structural element to power and its focus on prime ministerial predominance, much of this work collapses back into an interpretation that is close to the conclusions of the pre-1990 debate.Currently, only the interpretive, ethnographic approach proposed by Rhodes and his co-authors challenges the new orthodoxy. This article suggests that a resolutely positivist account of the core executive would provide a similar challenge and spark a lively and very welcome debate.

Desarrollo institucional y caracterización del centro de gobierno en Uruguay

“…Sin embargo, también pueden ser visualizados como una competencia, un intruso o un agente de control de las acciones de los organismos sectoriales. En cualquier caso, los estudios señalan que los CdG se han fortalecido como espacios de gobierno frente a otras áreas (Elgie, 2011).…”

Revisiting the Gospel: Appointed Political Staffs and Core Executive Policy Coordination

“…As such, the core executive concept itself can fruitfully be revisited to acknowledge an expanded membership. The implications of this are important analytically and empirically for intra-executive and extra-executive strands of that literature (Elgie, 2011;Shaw & Eichbaum, 2012).…”

“…This provides improved specificity regarding relational and locational dynamics of the actors and resource exchanges central to core executive theory (Elgie, 2011). Furthermore, analysis of the utility of appointed political staffs as an instrument for explicitly "partisan-political" types of policy coordination complements others long-noted in the policy literature (Boston, 1994;OECD, 2004OECD, , 2011Peters, 1998Peters, , 2013Verhoest, Bouckaert, & Peters, 2007), adding nuance to questions of what kinds of types of resources are being exchanged and coordinated.…”

“…The core executive concept introduced by Dunleavy and Rhodes (1990) has become the dominant if not orthodox approach to contemporary Anglo-American executive studies (Elgie, 2011;Marinetto, 2003). It comprises "all those organizations and structures which primarily serve to pull together and integrate central government policies, or act as final arbiters within the executive of conflicts between different elements of the government machine" (Dunleavy & Rhodes, 1990, p. 6).…”

Court politics in a federal polity

“…We interpret these actions by ascribing beliefs to them. Practices presuppose apt 2 For a detailed account of the core executive debate, its criticisms and variants and its emergence as the 'new orthodoxy' in executive studies see Elgie (2011), Heffernan (2003 and and XXXX (2006 and. Court politics beliefs, and beliefs do not make sense without the practices to which they refer.…”