Inheritance, choice and change

Page, Edward C. (2023) Inheritance, choice and change. In: Keating, Michael, McAllister, Ian, Page, Edward C and Peters, B Guy, (eds.) The Problem of Governing: Essays for Richard Rose. Executive Politics and Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland, 163 - 182. ISBN 9783031408168

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Abstract

‘Inheritance before choice’ is a recurring theme in Richard Rose’s work. He begins his article of the same name (Rose 1990, 263) with characteristic pithiness: ‘[p]olicy makers are heirs before they are choosers’. When they enter office, politicians take responsibility for processes of government established by laws, institutions, structures, procedures and arrangements covering vast ranges of economic, social, political and cultural activity. Some were created or established before the Second World War or earlier, and the great majority before the prime minister of the day entered parliament, but all form part of the inheritance of any government. Governments must make choices about what they want to change—introduce new programmes or terminate old ones. Even so, as he wrote in a study of the post-war corpus of primary legislation in the United Kingdom, ‘the stock of [existing] laws has a far greater impact upon government than does the smaller flow of legislation’ (van Mechelen and Rose 1986). The emphasis on the legacy of the past is an observation that underpins many of his insights in a range of different contexts.

Item Type:	Book Section
Official URL:	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40817-5
Additional Information:	© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Divisions:	Government
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Date Deposited:	29 Jan 2024 11:15
Last Modified:	29 Jan 2024 11:24
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/121593

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