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A very peculiar British crisis?: Institutions, ideas and policy responses to the credit crunch

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British Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

This article argues that some of the responses to the credit crunch by the UK Core Executive have shown the best and worst qualities of British political administration. There are examples of speedy and innovative policy responses and the fashioning of novel tools to deal with the potentially devastating impact on the real economy of problems in the financial markets. Equally, the crisis has exposed the weaknesses of the constrained discretion model of policymaking and, arguably, of group-think and the dangers of a culture of policymaking based on the personalisation of power.

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Notes

  1. The DMO is the unsung part of the ‘tripartite’ arrangements set up in 1997–1998 to give the Bank of England operational independence and create the FSA to manage supervision. The DMO is an agency of the Treasury responsible for funding and managing government debt – a role previously undertaken by the Bank of England.

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Acknowledgements

This article is a product of an ESRC funded project on the Treasury under New Labour (Grant RES 062 23 0369). I am grateful to a large number of current and former Treasury, No 10 and Bank of England officials, current and former Ministers, and journalists interviewed as part of the project. The views expressed in the article are my own, and speculative.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, OX1 4AL, UK

    Colin Thain

  2. Department of Political Science and International Studies, School of Government and Society, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

    Colin Thain

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  1. Colin Thain
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Correspondence to Colin Thain.

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Thain, C. A very peculiar British crisis?: Institutions, ideas and policy responses to the credit crunch. Br Polit 4, 434–449 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/bp.2009.24

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