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<p>Recent scholarship on managerialism in the United States has identified an alternative genealogy for concepts commonly associated with neoliberalism. This article uses this new lens and original historical research to re-evaluate two British administrative institutions from the 1970s, the Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS) and Programme Analysis and Review (PAR). Building on the existing literature on managerialism in Britain, the article argues for a revised periodisation that understands the CPRS and PAR as not just ill-fated administrative reforms, but rather as part of an early and largely successful attempt to import managerialist ideas into British public administration. This new analysis provides a more accurate account of these reforms and improves understanding of the actors, institutions and ideas behind the introduction of managerialism. The article frames managerialism as part of a wider political agenda, reflected in both privatisation and civil service reform, not a mere technocratic exercise. The active politicisation of these reforms in Britain had profound implications for the future of British governance.</p>

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Britain’s whiz kids: the PAR, CPRS and managerialism in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年1月15日

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  • Benjamin Thomas

摘要

Recent scholarship on managerialism in the United States has identified an alternative genealogy for concepts commonly associated with neoliberalism. This article uses this new lens and original historical research to re-evaluate two British administrative institutions from the 1970s, the Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS) and Programme Analysis and Review (PAR). Building on the existing literature on managerialism in Britain, the article argues for a revised periodisation that understands the CPRS and PAR as not just ill-fated administrative reforms, but rather as part of an early and largely successful attempt to import managerialist ideas into British public administration. This new analysis provides a more accurate account of these reforms and improves understanding of the actors, institutions and ideas behind the introduction of managerialism. The article frames managerialism as part of a wider political agenda, reflected in both privatisation and civil service reform, not a mere technocratic exercise. The active politicisation of these reforms in Britain had profound implications for the future of British governance.