Tag Archives: Public Bodies Reform Bill

Alex Marsh

Opinion: Should we be concerned about the Government’s attempted quangocide?

By Alex Marsh | Thu 13th January 2011 - 1:20 pm

Quangos – Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations – occupy a strange place in the British political landscape. They tend to proliferate because governments can’t resist seeing new commissions for this or advisory panels for that as essential, while rarely deciding that existing bodies have outlived their usefulness. Yet, the term “quango” inhabits the same discursive space as “bureaucracy”. There is an engrained association with waste, inefficiency, red tape and pointless interfering. In many people’s minds, and frequently in political rhetoric, “quango = bad” by definition. (For a discussion of a similar equation regarding bureaucracy, see here on my blog.) So, the …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged and | 7 Comments
Advert



Recent Comments

  • Alex Macfie
    The US fashion for "majority-minority" (I think I got it the right way round there) districting needs to be seen in the context of a system where districting is...
  • Alex Macfie
    @Matt (Bristol): had the Brexit referendum been run under an electoral college system (perhaps based on constituencies), then Leave would have won by a landslid...
  • Matt (Bristol)
    I would say, we do need to acknowledge the Electoral College precedent in UK democratic discussions, as its an attempt to find a consensus view that attempts to...
  • Matt (Bristol)
    I think we can acknowledge the feet of clay and obvious flaws of many western democracies - including or own - without rushing to silly words like 'condemn'. ...
  • Peter Martin
    Speaking as a neutral, I would say Lib Dems have now made as much progress as could reasonably be expected against the Tories. Lib Dems did well in July because...