Kavanagh et al: British Politics 5e

Chapter 13

Instructions

Choose your answers from a-d by clicking the radio button next to each choice and then press 'Submit' to get your score.

Question 1

Ralph Miliband viewed the British civil service in which of the following ways?

a) As supporting and protecting the interests of privileged sections of British society

b) As an elite grouping principally concerned with maximising their own interests, particularly seeking to increase the size of the bureaucracy

c) As employing their control of information and permanence to subvert the wishes of ministers

d) As an essential and neutral source of policy making expertise and advice in the British system of government

Question 2

Which of the following statements about 'New Public Management' is most accurate?

a) New public management is concerned with the challenges posed by the emergence of multiple centres of decision in the British system of government

b) New public management advocates clear hierarchical structures of authority as the best means to guarantee quality and standards in the civil service

c) New public management proposes that the introduction of market mechanisms will generate savings and more efficient delivery of those services typically delivered by government

d) New public management regards it as essential to involve the users of public services when designing delivery systems which will be efficient and flexible

Question 3

Sir Derek Rayner's principal contribution to reform of the civil service was which of the following?

a) He was the creator of the Civil Service College

b) He was an adviser on departmental efficiency in Whitehall

c) He was the author of the report which led to the Financial Management Initiative

d) He was the designer of the first 'Next Steps' Agencies

Question 4

Which of the following statements correctly summarises an aspect of the reforms of the Civil Service pursued by the Thatcher government?

a) The Thatcher government sought to make the civil service more responsive by decentralising the civil service and dispersing civil servants away from Whitehall

b) The Thatcher government sought to enhance the delivery of services by introducing Citizens Charters with clear targets and means of redress for service users

c) The Thatcher government sought to make civil servants more accountable to the public through measures of open government

d) The Thatcher government sought to improve efficiency by enhancing managerial autonomy

Question 5

Which of the following best describes the 'public service ethos'?

a) The principle that the delivery of public goods should be undertaken through mechanisms managed by the state

b) Civil servants subscribe to the general norm that they should provide public services in the most economically efficient way possible

c) A commitment amongst those employed by public services, including civil servants, to serve the public interest by acting with propriety

d) A willing acceptance by public servants, including civil servants, that they will receive lower levels of pay and privileges than their counterparts in the private sector

Question 6

Which of the following was a proposal contained within the 1999 White Paper Modernising Government?

a) Implementation of the proposals advanced by the Gershon Report

b) Allowing special advisers to issue instructions to civil servants

c) Enhancing service delivery through 'one-stop shops'

d) That all public services should be assessed according to a test of 'taxpayer value'

Question 7

Which of the following best defines the practice of 'market testing'?

a) Evaluation of public service activities to establish whether better, cheaper services would result from contracting out or the purchase of services from private sector suppliers

b) A test, typically devised and conducted by management consultants, which seeks to establish a fair market price for government contracts to deliver services

c) A process of systematically identifying and incorporating 'best practice' from the private sector into the operation of public sector services

d) The attempt to imitate market conditions within public service providers, particularly in respect of personnel management

Question 8

In recent years, approximately what proportion of senior appointments in Whitehall has been made from outside the ranks of the traditional civil service?

a) One-tenth

b) One-quarter

c) Two-thirds

d) Eight-tenths

Question 9

What is the approximate ratio of special advisers to civil servants currently in Whitehall?

a) 1:4

b) 1:10

c) 1:50

d) 1:300

Question 10

Which of the following statements most accurately summarises developments over the last quarter of a century in respect of the role of civil servants?

a) Policy delivery has been separated from delivery of policy advice with civil servants now wholly excluded from policy advice as a consequence of a process of wholesale politicisation in Whitehall

b) The priority of reforms of the civil service has been to enhance the quality of the policy advice given by civil servants and to make it a more socially representative body

c) The number of civil servants has dramatically declined. However, relations between the Civil Service and government have been much less strained than under the Conservatives largely because Labour has abandoned Conservative attempts to politicise the civil service

d) Civil servants no longer have a monopoly of advice to ministers but reform has failed to undermine the generalist character of the majority of civil servants

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Chapter 13

Instructions

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Question 8

Question 9

Question 10