Assessing the Differentiated Polity Model: towards an Asymmetric Power Model

Abstract

Our aim in this book has been to examine the changes that occurred within British central government departments between 1974 and 1997. In this conclusion we will begin by outlining the main changes that have occurred within departments and then we will return to the general issues raised in the introduction which we have used to organise our analysis. The second section will assess the utility of Rhodes’ differentiated polity as a conceptualisation of the operation of the British polity in the light of our study which focuses upon most of the issues discussed by Rhodes. In the third section we revisit the meta-theoretical issues addressed in the introduction; the relationships between structure and agency and ideas and institutions. The penultimate section then considers the broadest question of all, although it is one which clearly relates to the differentiated polity model: does our analysis confirm the utility of the pluralist conceptualisation of the British power structure? Finally, on the basis of our analysis, we shall develop our conceptualisation of the operation of the British polity, which we shall call the asymmetric power model.