Abstract
This chapter begins by defining the origins of the British civil servant within the 18th century East India Company, before describing how the recommended reforms of the Northcote–Trevelyan Report of 1854 led to a more modern Civil Service, and how the two world wars brought about further modifications. The Plowden Committee Report (1961) analysed the role of public expenditure management, but it was the Fulton Report of 1968 which urged greater efficiency, more clearly defined accountability and improved staff training in the Civil Service. The Heath administration (1970–1974) attempted to modernise the central government by establishing both the Central Policy Review Staff think tank and the Programme Analysis and Review (PAR) to analyse and control objectives, costs, outputs. The failure during the post-war period to substantially reform the Civil Service, however, as well as economic decline, brought the ideas about reducing government bureaucracy and state intervention.
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Castellani, L. (2018). The Civil Service: Definition, Organisation and Historical Background. In: The Rise of Managerial Bureaucracy . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90032-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90032-2_1
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