Why does nothing change? The challenges faced in policy making.
Why is it that both parties are the same, it seems that whichever one is in government can never solve long standing issues such as in healthcare or in the defence budget, this blog will show the effects of incrementalism on how a government can change and create policy.
The problem
Policy makers and governments in the UK are limited as to what changes they can make in the largest government departments, this is due to the large scale budget and the fact that all current functions must continue, leaving little room for major change on an already stretched budget and narrowing down alternatives to current policy (Berry. 1990. P 167-173). In 2019 the government had a deficit of £38.7 Billion which shows how little money there is to implement different ideas.
Additional issues arise due to the time it takes for policy to be carried out. It can often be the case that the government who created policy and who heavily invested is no longer in power and the political will for it is gone. The issue arises in how the taxpayer has already footed the large bill and as such the new government continues to enact a policy which they didn’t actually vote for or introduce, giving the sense that a new government does not actually create and enact major changes in policy.
Example 1 – The NHS
The NHS is a prime example of these issues partly due to the amount of money which is spent on the service, with spending at 11.3% of GDP share (Office for National Statistics. 2023). The size of this figure is visible on this chart which shows real world spending increases up to 2016.
“File:NHS Spending 1948-2014.png” by Absolutelypuremilk is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
With the amount of expenditure in the NHS and associated high costs of basic healthcare and functions of the NHS, it is difficult to take funds from a department to reassign them to a new focus within healthcare policy. Kieran Walshe suggested that even the restructuring of administration departments as set out in the 2012 Health and Social care act cost more than £1.5 billion in 2014 for little actual saving (Walshe. 2014. P 329). This presents a compelling argument as to why few policies can be carried out in a government department per electoral cycle as even for a change which does not require direct investment in equipment or buildings the cost is so high, this means it is unfeasible for a government to make completely sweeping reforms or even multiple large changes, even to the best funded areas of public spending.
Example 2- HMS Prince of Wales
The issue of time and incrementalism is clear through the example of HMS Prince of Wales, one of the Royal Navy’s largest ships and the 2nd Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier built for the Royal Navy.
“HMS PRINCE OF WALES Naming Ceremony” by QEClassCarriers is marked with CC0 1.0.
The planning and construction of such a vessel takes place over multiple years including the process of giving the contract to builders, in the case of HMS Prince of Wales, she was ordered in 2008, laid down in 2011 and commissioned in 2019. This lengthy period meant a different government saw the majority of the construction and cost of the vessel than the Labour government who awarded the contract. Resultantly, a second aircraft carrier was deemed as unnecessary in a 2010 strategic defence review by the government (HM Government. 2010. P 23). However, as the ship had already been ordered and laid down, it was more costly to cancel the project than to continue with the building process. This meant that the conservative government, despite not wanting a second aircraft carrier, were stuck footing the bill for a previous government’s policy taking away possible capital to forge their own policy path in defence.
Conclusion
The issues surrounding incrementalism can therefore be seen by both of these recent examples as a severe hurdle that has to be faced by a government to make enactable and reasonable policy in many of the major government departments. This issue of the policymaking process therefore gives the illusion that many of the most important things in society do not change at all no matter who is in control of the policy.
Bibliography
Absolutelypuremilk. (2017). File:NHS Spending 1948-2014.png. CC by SA-4.0
Berry, W. D. (1990). The Confusing Case of Budgetary Incrementalism: Too Many Meanings for a Single Concept. The Journal of Politics, 52(1), 167–196. https://doi.org/10.2307/2131424
Cotterill, T. 2019. How building HMS Prince of Wales turned out to be a tricky mission for the Royal Navy. The Portsmouth News. https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/how-building-hms-prince-of-wales-turned-out-to-be-a-tricky-mission-for-the-royal-navy-1044604
HM Government. (2010). Naval Forces. Securing Britain in an Age of Uncertainty: The Strategic Defence and Security Review. 22-23. https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20121014230000/http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_191634.pdf
Office for National Statistics. (2020). 6: How much is the general government deficit?. UK government debt and deficit: September 2019. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicspending/bulletins/ukgovernmentdebtanddeficitforeurostatmaast/september2019#:~:text=In%20the%20financial%20year%20ending%20(FYE)%20March%202019%2C%20the,with%20the%20FYE%20March%202018.
Office for National Statistics. (2023). 1: Main Points. Healthcare expenditure, UK Health Accounts provisional estimates: 2022. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthcaresystem/bulletins/healthcareexpenditureukhealthaccountsprovisionalestimates/2022
QEClassCarriers. (2017). HMS PRINCE OF WALES Naming Ceremony. CC0 1.0.
Royal Navy. (2019). Commissioning day for the HMS Prince of Wales. https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2019/december/10/191210-hms-prince-of-wales-commissioning
Walshe, K. (2014). Counting the cost of England’s NHS reorganisation. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 34. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26517643
this blog post deals with a very prominent topic within British politics. I found it important how the author gave a clear illustration of the problem first and foremost. suggesting that it doesn’t matter which party is in government because both of them have shown that they don’t have much capacity to install new legislation is an extremely important issue that the author highlights well. The concept of ‘bounded rationality’ becomes important here which refers to the limitations that individuals and by extension policymakers have in making choices due to rationed time and resources. i found it useful that the author gave two completely different examples, which demonstrates how widespread this issue actually is across the entirety of British politics. to provide another perspective, the author could have included the thoughts and feelings of those who are actually in government eg current/ former party members of both the dominant party and the opposition in order to evaluate how well the system works from an inside perspective.
Straight to the point, the punchy introduction presents the writer’s point obviously, with a clear focus on the role of governments within the policymaking process. Beginning by laying out the problem, that governments are limited in policymaking by their tight budgets and the short time frames, this blog post presents a strong structure. Using examples to frame conversations was a refreshing and compelling way for the writer to get their point across. By drawing upon examples, the writer showed how even where the budget is most generous, time constraints of electoral cycles will impact changes that governments intend to make. Both examples are useful for focusing on the faults of the policymaking process, whilst taking the focus of the blog post away from being a criticism of the government. This showed unbiased, critical reasoning around how the downfalls of the policymaking process can affect government action across the public sector. Additionally, the inclusion of statistics and data provided evidence which strengthened the impact of the arguments that the writer was making. Perhaps, another dimension to consider would have been how these challenges can be addressed, or if there is not an answer to these problems and things are just the way they are. Either way, it would have been interesting to hear the writer’s thoughts on addressing the issues as this topic is clearly something the writer is highly informed about, shown by detailed discussions on examples.
This blog post opens with an introduction and first section which serve to provide a good overview of the topic and problem being considered throughout. The post draws upon reliable sources, making use of a good mix of academic sources and more ‘primary’ sources. It also makes use of a graph in one section, which is very beneficial for visualisation. The post could perhaps have benefitted and been further elevated by considering angles such as potential solutions to the problem of incrementalism, as well as taking into account the low turnaround of parties in power within the UK (e.g. Conservatives have been in power since 2010, Labour in power 1997-2010, Conservatives in power 1979-97). Overall, however, this post is an interesting and insightful exploration of the topic.
The Blog Post pinpoints incrementalism as being a key issue in policymaking especially when applied to major issues in government The small-scale changes hinder policymaking and help prevent any real forms of legislation from being implemented. The blog post also appreciates that this is an issue which is not exclusive to a certain party and both Labour and Conservative governments have proved their inability to legislate with this style of policymaking in place. However, whilst the blog post has shown a clear understanding of what the issue is it doesn’t necessarily propose any reforms for the issue. This could be in the form of ‘strategic policymaking’ which would provide a much more flexible and forward-thinking style of policymaking, although a more risky and proactive approach I believe it could counteract the main issue of incrementalism which is the overwhelming sense that any real progress in policymaking cannot be achieved.
This is ultimately an insightful exploration of the topic displaying valid reasoning as to why policymaking is an issue.