Open AccessMuers, Stephen (2020). Culture and Values at the Heart of Policy Making. An Insider's Guide. Bristol: Policy Press.
Author(s) -
Werner Jann
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
der moderne staat
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2196-1395
pISSN - 1865-7192
DOI - 10.3224/dms.v14i1.12
Subject(s) - insider , cabinet (room) , public administration , argument (complex analysis) , public policy , administration (probate law) , politics , skepticism , political science , civil servants , cultural policy , policy making , political culture , sociology , law and economics , law , epistemology , engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy , mechanical engineering
This book is a forceful and entertaining argument why culture and values should be taken much more seriously, both by policy makers, but also in the curricula of modern Public Policy and Public Administration programs. The author is not a fundamental sceptic of managerial politics and administration, but he shows the inherent limits, contradictions, and blind spots of this kind of policy making. He succeeds particularly well because he can draw on many years of experience as a civil servant in different British ministries, in the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit. The book adds little to the conceptual and theoretical discussions of cultural factors in policy making, but it does provide many interesting examples of their significance and why it is dangerous to ignore them. It should be read by students in advanced public policy and public administration programs, who should find it helpful to see the technical solutions to all sorts of policy problems in a somewhat more realistic light.