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Reinventing the Treasury: Economic Rationalism or an Econocrat’s Fallacy of Control?
Author(s) -
Parry Richard,
Hood Christopher,
James Oliver
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9299.00067
Subject(s) - fallacy , treasury , veto , control (management) , economics , public expenditure , public choice , public economics , law and economics , public finance , political science , management , law , politics , macroeconomics , philosophy , epistemology
The 1994 Fundamental Expenditure Review (FER) of the UK Treasury was a radical overhaul of organization that had major implications for the way the Treasury conducts its business. This article examines the origins and implications of FER, paying particular attention to the ‘strategic’ philosophy of controlling public expenditure encapsulated within it. Ostensibly an expression of modern economic rationalism overturning outmoded administrative practices, the FER approach to public spending control might alternatively be interpreted as a manifestation of a recurring ‘econocrat’s fallacy of control’ which aims to remove redundancy, random search mechanisms and external veto points from control systems.