The Influence of Heclo and Wildavsky's The Private Government of Public Money

• Published in: Public policy and administration Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 3 - 19
• Main Author: Parry, Richard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2003
• ISSN: 0952-0767; 1749-4192
• DOI: 10.1177/095207670301800402

Hugh Heclo and Aaron Wildavsky's Private Government of Public Money was one of the most influential public policy books of the 1970s because of the flair of its analysis and its pioneering use of interviews with policy-makers. Despite a revision in 1981 it fails to predict the demise of the system it celebrated the Public Expenditure Survey and associated Policy Analysis and Review - and its influence on subsequent studies of the Treasury has not been great. More lasting have been its analytical themes - the notion of ‘political administrators ’including both ministers and officials, a ‘trial of personalities’ as the key to policy-making, and the importance of the technical dynamics of the system in constraining behaviour. It pioneered a new way of writing about British central administration, although its depersonalised and anonymised presentation, and masculinised image of the ‘club’ has been superseded. Some of the authors' policy prescriptions have also proved prescient. Although the book now seems to lack the systematic and quantitative analysis that its subject-matter invited, its written style is memorable and its effect on other researchers remains inspirational.