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RAYNERISM IN PRACTICE: ANATOMY OF A RAYNER SCRUTINY
Author(s) -
WARNER NORMAN
Publication year - 1984
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/j.1467-9299.1984.tb00541.x
Subject(s) - scrutiny , bureaucracy , government (linguistics) , politics , value (mathematics) , dimension (graph theory) , political science , process (computing) , service (business) , public relations , public administration , sociology , law and economics , law , business , marketing , machine learning , computer science , pure mathematics , operating system , philosophy , linguistics , mathematics
Rayner scrutinies have become a regular feature of life in government departments. It takes only a few months to conduct a scrutiny but implementation is a far longer process which can absorb much ministerial and official time. This paper describes one of the first Rayner scrutinies — on arrangements for paying social security benefits — from inception to implementation. It relates the scrutiny team's reports to the social security system it was in part reviewing and then traces the way that ministers and officials handled the controversy that the scrutiny team's proposals caused when leaked in an inaccurate form. It concludes by speculating about some wider lessons that might be drawn about the validity of the scrutiny technique; the value of the Rayner label on reviews; the need for independent reviews in bureaucratic organizations; civil service responsiveness to reviews: the political dimension to management issues: public debate and open government considerations, and the indirect consequences of scrutinies.