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A remarkable insight into one of our most influential institutions

Reviews

`A massive study of the planning and control of public expenditure in Britain since the introduction of cash limits in the mid-1970s ... this is the most thorough and comprehensive study of public expenditure available.'
Times Higher Education Supplement
`Substantial study ... Thain and Wright's book stands as the definitive work in this area; impressively informative.'
Parliamentary Affairs
`The authors have undertaken the most comprehensive and exhaustive analysis of the planning and control of public expenditure in Britain ever published ... this is a book that ought to be read by all students of British politics, by new institutionalists, budgetary politics specialists, and students of the comparative economic policymaking process. It gives great insight into policymaking within the original Westminster model at a time when this is more
under strain than ever before.'
Paul Whiteley, American Political Science Review, vol.90 no.4, 1996
`Some books do not need long reviews. They need only one adjective to describe them. This book falls into that category and the adjective is 'monumental' ... it is authoritative administrative and contemporary history ... the book is both theoretically informed and policy relevant ... Thain and Wright provide the definitive account of the planning and control of public expenditure in Britain between 1976 and 1993. It should be in every library and, even
at £60, every academic studying public expenditure will have to own a copy.'
Political Studies, vol.XLV no.4 1997
`This book is likely to be of considerable interest to anyone wishing to consider the relevance of developments in the UK as part of the comparative study of public administration ... This book is, in my opinion, the most detailed and authoritative study of the work of a department of central government ever published ... As far as I know, no other study of a central government department has been so well resourced. Moreover, it was undertaken by senior
academics with well established reputations in this field ... The detail contained in the book is impressive ... Some of the general findings of the research are ... supportive of what many readers will have
already suspected, and it is good to have authoritative confirmation.'
Governance