Opening the Black Box of Administrative Reform: A Strategic-Relational Analysis of Agency Responses to Termination Threats

Coming to Terms with Termination of Public Organizations

“…Organizations are only terminated if they are disbanded, when they cease to exist in any form-period. All other events in the life of a public organization are forms of adaptation, perhaps even on its own initiative, in its struggle to survive (see also Dommett and Skelcher 2014, for an account of agency responses when facing abolition and reform). In an impressive historical institutionalist account of the life and death of the Australian Wheat Board-later AWB Ltd.-, Botterill (2011: 637) shows the evolution from Ba venerable institution, anchored in collective agrarian values^, to an Binternational grain trader prepared to sell wheat whatever it took^-until the Oil for Food scandal unmasked its institutional drift and caused its final death blow.…”

Abolishing the Audit Commission: Framing, Discourse Coalitions and Administrative Reform

“…This is somewhat surprising when viewed from the perspective of historical institutionalism, in which institutional 'stickiness' is predicted on the basis that considerable political investment is needed to overcome the accumulated sunk costs of the status quo (Pierson 2002). On the other hand, neither did the Audit Commission take steps to challenge the decision and seek its survival, as rational actor and resource dependency theories would predict (Oliver 1991;Overman 2011;Dommett and Skelcher 2014).…”

“…(Interview 3) The habitus of the Audit Commission was one of public self-denial in respect of the future of the organisation. The Commission's board could have mounted a defence and opposed abolition, but instead almost automatically chose to acquiesce due to the deep norms that come with accepting appointed public office (Dommett and Skelcher 2014). Consequently, the discursive resources open to the Audit Commission were constrained, and without substantial stakeholder opposition to the proposals the abolition was relatively straightforward.…”

“…The Public Bodies Bill proposed abolishing 44 types of public body, with the option to extend this to a further 151, but its passage through Parliament was complex and lengthy despite all party support for its overall intention. Proposals for specific abolitions were opposed through high-profile stakeholder campaigns (Dommett and Skelcher 2014).…”

“…The literature on changes to the machinery of government typically emphasises the complexity and contestation that surrounds such proposals in the face of the tendency to path dependency (Dommett and Skelcher 2014;March and Olsen 1983;Yesilkagit and Christensen 2010). Further, the Audit Commission's functions were deeply embedded in the structure and psyche of central-local government relations, as well as through its wider role in relation to NHS bodies, police and fire authorities, social housing providers and a number of other local public service organisations.…”