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| 1 |
ID:
086969
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| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Two books at the end of the Blair era-by Michael Barber and Julian Le Grand-offer to redeem the 'third way'. Both authors explore the political case for public sector reform and the means by which it can be accomplished. They explore a similar range of reform models: command and control; quasi-markets; and devolution and transparency. But the circle between efficiency, client service and continuous improvement must be squared. Neither author considers the 'learning by doing' alternative. No less fundamentally, neither author addresses the political and technical challenges in developing strategy. How are issues to be aired in advance so as to expose evidence and perspectives? How are interests to be engaged and supporting coalitions formed? How are these processes to occur without executive commitment? How are unconventional ideas to be aired without being over-ruled by populist or media sensationalism? These are the practical dilemmas that confounded Blair's efforts. These books invite a strategic conversation that is badly needed. But where in the political system can it be pursued?
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| 2 |
ID:
149623
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| Summary/Abstract |
This essay offers a critical analysis of the contributions to the history of the Russian Civil Wars made by one of its most prolific and controversial historians, Geoffrey Swain, setting his monographs, articles, chapters, book reviews and other writings on the subject into broader developments in the field. The author finds that Swain’s interventions in debates on the civil wars have cut against the grain in many respects, but that Swain’s case for the potentiality of an alternative outcome to the Civil-War struggles—a ‘Third Way’, one that was neither Red nor White but ‘Green’—remains, so far, not proven.
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