Teaching Comparative

Quaint Quangos

Back in ancient times, when I first began teaching comparative politics, quangos were a big deal. Margaret Thatcher was out to eliminate them as a way to reduce the cost of government. (Plus, the word was almost as much fun for students as cleavage.)

Have quangos brought government closer to the people? Or have they been un-democratic rule makers not responsible to elected officials?

More than 100 quangos axed by coalition, say ministers

More than 100 quangos have been axed and a further 90 merged into other bodies since the coalition came to power, ministers have said.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said the cull of publicly funded agencies was on track to save £2.6bn by the end of this Parliament.

However, costs from the reorganisation, including redundancy payouts to staff affected, could be as high as £900m…

Quangos - "quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations" - are "arm's-length" bodies funded by Whitehall departments but not run by them.

They are advisory bodies, consumer watchdogs or organisations carrying out public services.

MPs have questioned the projected savings and the wider benefit to government in terms of quicker decision-making and greater accountability.

Last year, the cross-party public administration committee said the process had been "poorly managed" and pre-election claims about how much could be saved were "probably exaggerated".

The up-front cost of the reorganisation is projected to be between £600m and £900m…

The Taxpayers' Alliance, which campaigns for better value for money from public spending, said the abolition of "unnecessary and costly" quangos was welcome.

"But there is plenty more to do in terms of cracking down on the quango state," said the organisation's chief executive Matthew Sinclair.

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from The Daily Mail

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Quango staff keep jobs despite Cameron's promise to cull numbers

Five in six quango staff will keep their jobs despite David Cameron's promise to have a bonfire of bureaucracy.

Ministers have been criticised for slow progress in getting rid of "non-departmental public bodies" as new figures reveal that 100 out of 900 have been culled.

Around 150 more have been merged down to 70 but it appears many staff have simply been transferred across to different bodies.

Labour claims the Government has actually created more than 150 new quangos since coming to power, including 140 alone in the NHS shake-up.

Official statistics show only 18,000 jobs out of more than 110,000 at quangos will be scrapped in total…

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Coalition beware: bonfires of quangos usually burn themselves out

I have sat beside blazing quango bonfires, real and rhetorical, for at least 30 years, and the net effect is that quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations – to give them their full name – continue to thrive.

They will do under this government – and the next one, too. They did so under Margaret Thatcher, who came to power in 1979 determined to slaughter many of them, but – as in much else – found it hard even for her formidable willpower to achieve…

Quangos survive because they usually serve a useful purpose to the public and do so at arm's length from politicians and Whitehall officialdom…

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Labels: bureaucracy, government, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:00 AM