Andrew Connell
RMIT University
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The Political Quarterly | 2017
Andrew Connell; Stephen James Martin; Emily St Denny
This article explores how a devolved government in a small country, faced with external constraints beyond its immediate control, can deploy policy resources to shape a distinctive approach to public services. We analyse recent homelessness policy in Wales using the NATO (Nodality, Authority, Treasure, Organisation) typology of tools of government proposed by Hood and Margetts, and show how this can be applied usefully to understand the choices that governments must make in conducting relationships with other institutions. We conclude that a combination of Nodality and Authority provide powerful resources for a subnational government which has only limited formal powers and fiscal autonomy.
Political Studies Review | 2017
Andrew Connell
in teams (pp. 201–204), keeping score within time frameworks (p. 236) and having the ability and willingness to admit error and change the course of action when this is deemed necessary (pp. 159–166, 192). Tetlock and Gardner think that the most important qualities for superforecasting are (a) intelligence and (b) the degree to which people are committed to belief updating and self-improvement. In their terms, these are perpetual beta people (p. 192). The book is very engaging. The story is captivating. The lessons are scientific, well measured, practical and thought-provoking. The flow of writing makes a compelling thesis that is important and timely, with direct implications on our lives, whether the reader is a leader who has to face tough decisions, a strategist who is engaged with complicated decision-making processes, a political analyst who is tasked to envisage who will win the next election, or a person who wishes to invest in the stock market. This brilliant book offers something to every reader. You will surely enjoy it. May I predict that this book will now be on your list of must reads?
Political Studies Review | 2017
Andrew Connell
When 29 Labour MPs were elected to Parliament in 1906, the publisher George Allen responded to a wave of public interest in the new force in British politics by commissioning a series of books on the ‘Labour Ideal’. From Serfdom to Socialism was part of that series. In it, Keir Hardie, Labour’s Parliamentary leader, presented the basic principles of his socialism, alongside more detailed discussions of specific matters such as municipal socialism, the state, the place of women and the relationship of socialism to Christianity. Over a century later, it remains an invigorating read; with great energy and eloquent simplicity of language Hardie sets out a vision of a socialism that is ethical rather than economic (although he is uncompromising in attacking the effects of the capitalist economics of his day), egalitarian, inclusive, and dedicated to the full realisation of individual liberty through social co-operation. It seems strange then that this volume, published to coincide with the centenary of Hardie’s death in 2015, should be only the third edition of what should surely be a better known work. In his very comprehensive Introduction to this edition, John Callow suggests that the reason for this neglect lies in the way that Hardie, after his death, was commemorated within the Party which he did so much to found. Because Hardie was an attractive and foundational figure, all wings of the Party could claim him as one of their own. But the price of the near-universal appropriation of Hardie’s memory was neutralisation and patronage of the man. Hardie had little formal education; his passion showed everywhere in his writing and speaking; it was easy to honour – and ultimately implicitly to dismiss – him as a romantic prophet. One of the aims of this new edition then is to reclaim Hardie’s reputation as a thinker by making these essays more widely available. Does it succeed? Only in part. On the evidence of this book, Hardie was in large part a romantic prophet. He himself admitted that here he was outlining the ends to be achieved; the obstacles to achieving the ends could be addressed once the ends had been accepted. But Callow makes a convincing case for Hardie’s visionary wisdom in shaping a Labour Party that was deliberately theoretically amorphous in order to unite within it a diversity of socialists of all classes and traditions. And anyway, there is really nothing wrong with being a prophet.
Political Studies Review | 2017
Andrew Connell
This book aims to provide educators, stakeholders and policy-makers with a perspective on how global citizenship education can be promoted and how critical global educators committed to social justice and development can be produced. In this sense, the book is based on a criticism of traditional and technical teacher training that ignores the importance of developmental aspects and an understanding of democratic values and inequalities within education. The first chapter offers a rich conceptual and theoretical framework drawing from Bourdieu’s habitus, Meziworan and O’Sullivan’s transformative learning, critical realist framing and cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to offer hermeneutic lenses. Although the chapter is written with rich insights and includes high intellectual debates and justifications of theory, the author generates little resonance in terms of how all these lenses complement and connect with each other. The second chapter focuses on theories of globalisation to highlight potentialities and opportunities as well as the threats globalisation may cause to educational institutions, and it portrays how the global system contextualises global education. Drawing on a number of rich philosophical ideas and principles, in chapter 3 the author seeks to conceptualise the critical global educator and to explain the fundamental pillars of global education. Chapter 4 provides a rationale for methodology based on CHAT as embodied critical realism in order to evaluate global educators. In so doing, Maureen Ellis carries out a number of surveys with trainee teachers as well as interviews and focus group discussions with practitioners and academics. Chapter 5 criticises nationalist policies and guidelines and presents a political reform movement arguing that education policies which ignore theoretical premises cannot tackle the political–ethical contradiction which lies at the heart of globalisation. It therefore demands that professional education be based on political and multimediated literacies. Chapter 6 presents a thematic analysis of the interviews and focuses on the political, economic and cultural factors which play a role in the professional development of critical global educators. The last chapter provides eight recommendations for global citizenship education as sustainable development, based on the theoretical discussion and empirical evidence presented in the preceding chapters. The book touches on the highly significant topic of the transformation of global education that is rooted in rich philosophical and theoretical frames. However, the structure and the text are at times difficult to follow and often fall into a repetition of ideas. This makes it challenging to process and to elicit key arguments, especially for those who are not familiar with CHAT.
Political Studies Review | 2017
Andrew Connell
Coincidentally, I am writing this the day after the death was announced of Sir Anthony Jay, author with Jonathan Lynn of the BBC series Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. Jay and Lynn’s comedies were extremely funny and very clever; they were also more or less explicit propaganda for public choice theory, presenting a highly sceptical view of the administrative capacity of the state that went hand in hand with the rise of New Public Management. But 35 years on, the state is still with us. If the 1980s and 1990s were characterised by the claims of some political practitioners (and some academics) that the state had little to offer, the first decade and a half of the current century have refocused attention on it. The response of (some) states to the global financial crisis of 2008 suggested that rather than being hollowed out or superseded, the state could when necessary act quickly, decisively and effectively. However, once the dust generated by the crisis began to settle, many scholars and commentators began to return to a view of the state as deeply compromised by political, institutional and economic constraints – not least by a dependence on the continued prosperity, and therefore the goodwill, of financial markets. The authors of this volume suggest that, while the contemporary state does have to work within a context of dispersed authority and depleted resources, it is premature to suggest that it cannot develop answers – and innovative answers at that – to some of the ‘wicked problems’ of our time. They argue persuasively that the key to the state’s ability to solve problems is its administrative capacity, which can be subdivided into delivery, co-ordination, regulation and analysis. Four early chapters explore each of these subdivisions in turn and are complemented by a chapter which examines the management capacity and performance of European public administrations. Three key policy areas – demographic change and its relation to welfare, sustainability, and infrastructure policy – are then considered in detail, while the third section of the book looks at five aspects of capacity and innovation beyond the single state. As you would expect from a book that forms part of the Hertie School of Governance’s ongoing Governance Programme, this is a collection of very substantial essays by distinguished (chiefly) European scholars, which will be of value both individually and as a collection to specialists in the fields of governance, public administration and public policy.
Political Studies Review | 2016
Andrew Connell
These books, then, are about decisionmaking in conflicts where the political direction was vague because of the inherent ambiguity of most high-level political strategy; where the political, operational and tactical levels of strategy were confused; where public support has been questionable and vulnerable; where the limited ways and means – especially money – available has meant that British blood has been cheaper than British treasure; where planning and doctrine have been dubious, untested or long neglected; where the military’s ‘can do’ attitude meant officers had an itch for fighting which sometimes led them to take the initiative without political support; and where decisions and actions have depended on allies and, most difficult of all, local political developments. Such problems are to be found in many states which have their military deployed overseas, and consequently these books will be of interest far beyond the United Kingdom.
Political Studies Review | 2015
Andrew Connell
is a great deal of nuance in that historical record. While they set out to show the centrality of the JIC to the machinery of UK intelligence, they note that only recently has the Committee become a public feature of intelligence debate. This book adopts a broadly historical methodology; it is critical of its sources, but it uses them as the primary means to evaluate effectiveness and to describe these relationships. In terms of its coverage, the authors have been guided by what is present in those archives. That archive does, however, cover most of the crises and incidents that the UK has been party to or part of since 1936. There is, therefore, broad coverage of the Cold War (Russia, nuclear nonproliferation, Suez, Vietnam), crises for the UK including Northern Ireland and the Falklands, and more recent crises involving Iraq and the Syrian Civil War. The book is aimed at intelligence scholars, those with a general interest in contemporary foreign policy history and it can also be seen as providing a taster for those interested in what intelligence material is held in the archives. Spying on the World provides a genuinely novel set of historical materials. This book is the first time such a set of materials has been curated, presented and analysed. It is highly likely that Aldrich, Cormac and Goodman will be succeeded by other historians who now enter the JIC archives seeking to build more detailed, but narrower historical constructs based on this material. The book is right to evaluate critically what can be learned and known from an archive exclusively filled with government documents, and the various tensions within historical method are well discussed here. Spying on the World is a well-written and nicely presented book. The archive material appearing in its original form is a pleasing attention to detail.
Political Studies Review | 2015
Andrew Connell
is a great deal of nuance in that historical record. While they set out to show the centrality of the JIC to the machinery of UK intelligence, they note that only recently has the Committee become a public feature of intelligence debate. This book adopts a broadly historical methodology; it is critical of its sources, but it uses them as the primary means to evaluate effectiveness and to describe these relationships. In terms of its coverage, the authors have been guided by what is present in those archives. That archive does, however, cover most of the crises and incidents that the UK has been party to or part of since 1936. There is, therefore, broad coverage of the Cold War (Russia, nuclear nonproliferation, Suez, Vietnam), crises for the UK including Northern Ireland and the Falklands, and more recent crises involving Iraq and the Syrian Civil War. The book is aimed at intelligence scholars, those with a general interest in contemporary foreign policy history and it can also be seen as providing a taster for those interested in what intelligence material is held in the archives. Spying on the World provides a genuinely novel set of historical materials. This book is the first time such a set of materials has been curated, presented and analysed. It is highly likely that Aldrich, Cormac and Goodman will be succeeded by other historians who now enter the JIC archives seeking to build more detailed, but narrower historical constructs based on this material. The book is right to evaluate critically what can be learned and known from an archive exclusively filled with government documents, and the various tensions within historical method are well discussed here. Spying on the World is a well-written and nicely presented book. The archive material appearing in its original form is a pleasing attention to detail.
Political Studies Review | 2012
Andrew Connell
party’s left wing, aided by right wingers who sought to dissociate themselves from notions of post-war consensus, did great disservice to the credibility of the Conservatives as the ‘national party’. Seawright repeatedly cautions against positioning individuals on a simplistic ‘left–right spectrum’, yet for the most part accepts the statist–anti-statist dichotomy while paying little attention to civil society as the basis of Tory thought. Nonetheless, he demonstrates convincingly that the One Nation Group was, and still is, both active and diverse. However, too often he collapses the concept of One Nation into the form and fortunes of this particular group. In his concentration on elite politics and posturing, Seawright overlooks the construction of political meaning at, for example, the party grass-roots level, along with the complex process by which ideas are received and filtered by opinion leaders. He thus offers only a partial explanation of why popular perceptions of One Nation Toryism are seemingly at odds with the discourse within the parliamentary Conservative party. Nevertheless, Seawright’s timely study is accessible, if verbosely written, and will appeal to those seeking greater understanding of doctrine in Britain’s ‘nonideological’ party.
Political Studies Review | 2012
Andrew Connell
party’s left wing, aided by right wingers who sought to dissociate themselves from notions of post-war consensus, did great disservice to the credibility of the Conservatives as the ‘national party’. Seawright repeatedly cautions against positioning individuals on a simplistic ‘left–right spectrum’, yet for the most part accepts the statist–anti-statist dichotomy while paying little attention to civil society as the basis of Tory thought. Nonetheless, he demonstrates convincingly that the One Nation Group was, and still is, both active and diverse. However, too often he collapses the concept of One Nation into the form and fortunes of this particular group. In his concentration on elite politics and posturing, Seawright overlooks the construction of political meaning at, for example, the party grass-roots level, along with the complex process by which ideas are received and filtered by opinion leaders. He thus offers only a partial explanation of why popular perceptions of One Nation Toryism are seemingly at odds with the discourse within the parliamentary Conservative party. Nevertheless, Seawright’s timely study is accessible, if verbosely written, and will appeal to those seeking greater understanding of doctrine in Britain’s ‘nonideological’ party.
