On Monday 1st November, How Did Britain Come To This?: A century of systemic failures of governance author, Gwyn Bevan, explored the key themes and case studies showcased in his new book, out now via Open Access with LSE Press.
In this launch event chaired by Professor Patrick Dunleavy, speakers Professor Gwyn Bevan, Dr Abby Innes and Ros Taylor discussed the post-war political settlement established by Clement Attlee’s government developed systems to tackle what William Beveridge identified as five giant evils of Britain in 1942: Want, Disease, Ignorance, Idleness, and Squalor. By 1979, these systems were failing. In the UK, from 1979, successive governments led by Margaret Thatcher aimed to tackle those failures in a neoliberal settlement based on rolling back the state and empowering markets.
This strategy was based on two fundamental neoliberal ideas. First, the social responsibility of private enterprises is to maximise profits within rules of the game. Second, effective systems of governance can harness the attractions of market forces for services that violate the requirements for markets to be effective.
In How Did Britain Come To This? Gwyn Bevan argues that the interaction of these two ideas created an accidental logic in which financialised enterprises have exploited rules of the game to maximise profits.
Praise for How Did Britain Come To This?
“How Did Britain Come to This is a challenging if controversial account of the malaise in our public services, arguing for an end to the neo-liberal consensus that has in effect ruled Britain since the time of Margaret Thatcher. It should be read by every concerned citizen.” — Sir Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Government, King’s College
“A chilling catalogue of systemic failure – and the consequences – at the heart Britain’s most important institutions. An account that lays bare repeated scandals in the NHS, financial mismanagement in high profile boardrooms and outsourced service companies such as the construction giant, Carillion.” — Stewart Lansley, author of The Richer, The Poorer: How Britain Enriched the Few and Failed the Poor
“A coruscating analysis of the failings of British governance and public policy that led to the catastrophe of the Covid pandemic and its aftermath.” — Patrick Diamond, Professor in Public Policy, Queen Mary University of London
“To say this book is timely would be an understatement. Few academic commentators could do better than Gwyn Bevan in explaining how Britain managed to muddle its way through to the condition it finds itself in right now. Politicians contemplating power after the forthcoming general election should read it.” — Tony Travers, Associate Dean of LSE’s School of Public Policy
“In this well-timed book, Professor Gwyn Bevan reflects upon fifty years of governance and public policy that he has spent his lifetime studying. He asks the question: how should public services best be organised – by markets or hierarchies? His conclusion – there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Instead, what society really needs is many more “knights”, that is, intrinsically motivated politicians and public servants who are intent on doing the right, without fear or favour, not for money, power or status, solely because it is the right thing to do. I’m absolutely certain that he’s right.” — Alexander (Sandy) Pepper, Professor of Management Practice, London School of Economics and Political Science and author of If You’re Ethical, Why Are You So Highly Paid?
