Papers by Peter Taylor-Gooby
Choice and Public Policy, 1998
At the end of the 1990s, individual choice has moved to the top of the policy agenda. Many people... more At the end of the 1990s, individual choice has moved to the top of the policy agenda. Many people have higher disposable incomes, working and family life are more flexible and governments wish to reduce state intervention and extend the role of markets. For some, cutbacks in public services, unemployment, benefit constraint and lower pay reduce the scope of palatable choice. Recent developments in social science have called the dominant framework in understanding economic decisions — in work, saving and spending — into question. This book reviews evidence from a range of settings on how far it is reasonable to see market choice as simply reflecting what people want. In this chapter we discuss the main reasons why choice has ascended the political agenda and review some recent developments in understanding how people make decisions.
Analysis of idea of fairness in European Social Polic
The Emerging Risks team is part of the Performance Management Directorate at Lloyd's. We define a... more The Emerging Risks team is part of the Performance Management Directorate at Lloyd's. We define an emerging risk as an issue that is perceived to be potentially significant, but which may not be fully understood or allowed for in insurance terms and conditions, pricing, reserving or capital setting. Our objective is to ensure that the Lloyd's market is aware of potentially significant emerging risks so that it can decide on an appropriate response to them. The Lloyd's Emerging Risks team maintains a database of emerging risks that is updated regularly through conversations with the Lloyd's emerging risks Special Interests Group, which consists of experts within the Lloyd's market put together with help from the Lloyd's Market Association. The team also maintains contact with the academic community, the wider business community and government. Contact with academics is often facilitated through the Lighthill Risk Network, an organisation that is run as not-for-profit funded by Aon Benfield, Catlin, Guy Carpenter and Lloyd's. More details can be found at www.lloyds.com/emergingrisks.
Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. Public Money, 1983
Policy & Politics, 2015
The UK welfare state is under attack from harsh spending cuts, focused particularly on women, chi... more The UK welfare state is under attack from harsh spending cuts, focused particularly on women, children, low-paid people and claimers of working age, and a restructuring programme. This paper examines why it is hard to make a case for generous state welfare that is both inclusive and electorally attractive. It discusses the way the issues are understood, the trilemma that pro-welfare policy-making faces, proposals for new directions in policy and a reform programme that might help build a more inclusive welfare discourse. A more inclusive society requires policies that reframe the way people think about work, reward and welfare.
Journal of Social Policy, 2020
Oddfellows (Manchester Unity). In Chapter , Ismay provides a broad overview of the origins and d... more Oddfellows (Manchester Unity). In Chapter , Ismay provides a broad overview of the origins and development of the Manchester Unity during the first half of the nineteenth century. In Chapter , she continues the story, with a particular focus on the years between and . This period played a central role in the development of the organisation because it saw the introduction of more scientifically-grounded actuarial methods. However, despite this, Ismay argues that the organisation continued to place great emphasis on the importance of sociability. As Ismay suggests, the role played by sociability in friendly society life has often seemed controversial. Many contemporaries argued that the societies devoted too much attention to the development of elaborate membership rituals and that these limited their ability to provide practical assistance. In contrast, Ismay argues that sociability and conviviality were central to the creation of the bonds of trust and reciprocity on which the societies depended. However, this argument may be less original than the author suggests. During the s, David Green argued that the rituals of friendly society life played a central part in their efforts to control malingering, and the same issues were also discussed in a less polemical way by Gorsky () and Weinbren (). Ismay also considers the relationship between friendly societies and the growth of the modern welfare state. This has become an increasingly controversial topic in recent years, with commentators on both left and right arguing not only that friendly societies (and other forms of mutual aid) were ‘crowded out’ by the rise of the welfare state, but also that they offered a viable alternative to it (see Harris, ). However, as Ismay points out, many contemporaries believed that the ethos of welfare mutualism was also reflected in the creation of institutions such as the NHS. She therefore challenges us to reconsider the role of that ethos in the development of welfare services today.
Journal of Social Policy, 2021
This paper charts responses to urgent appeals by welfare charities through crowd funding websites... more This paper charts responses to urgent appeals by welfare charities through crowd funding websites in order to examine the impact of the Covid19 pandemic on public generosity and social cohesion in the UK. It uses a relatively new method in social policy research, data-harvesting. Online public giving to local charities for vulnerable people sky-rocketed during the crisis, despite the long-established stigmatic treatment of the able-bodied poor of working age, a decade of benefit cuts, the increased stringency of Universal Credit and the long-term downward trend in charity incomes. Welfare policy and the rhetoric that surrounds it is increasingly divisive, although most welfare spending addresses needs or risks that confront all of us. The Covid19 lockdown can be seen as a natural experiment in social inclusion. This paper shows how policy discourse that stresses common humanity in the face of a collective challenge, rather than social divisions, can help build social cohesion.
Attitudes, Aspirations and Welfare, 2018
The Democratic Forum approach makes a major contribution to understanding what people want from t... more The Democratic Forum approach makes a major contribution to understanding what people want from the welfare state and what they think is possible and to the framings that connect their ideas. Our work shows how intergenerational solidarity and support for the core welfare state services (healthcare and pensions) remain resilient across Europe, while views on inequality and, most importantly, on immigration differ between countries. Despite conflict, the dominant view across most of Europe is that immigration tensions can be managed through social and cultural integration. In the UK the primary stance is exclusionary and chauvinist.
Social Policy & Administration, 2017
The Political Quarterly, 2013
Journal of Social Policy, 2017
The aim of this article is to investigate the argument that choice and competition will unleash e... more The aim of this article is to investigate the argument that choice and competition will unleash entrepreneurial innovation in free schools. Free schools were introduced as a subset of the Academies by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition government, following the general election in 2010. The government made it possible for non-state providers to set up their own independent, state-funded schools in order to create more choice, competition and innovation. We conclude that a higher level of substantive innovation is taking place in regards to management practices than in respect of curriculum and pedagogical practices. Innovation in curriculum and pedagogical practices is very limited. Creating a free school offer that seems to differ from other schools appears to be done through marketing and branding rather than innovation. We argue that parents, OFSTED, and the relative isolation of free schools constrain innovation from taking place.
Journal of Social Policy, 2015
Legislative changes and a recent court ruling allow private schools in England and Wales to deter... more Legislative changes and a recent court ruling allow private schools in England and Wales to determine how to provide the public benefits required to justify their charitable status. We investigate how private school headteachers and other informed stakeholders perceive their public benefit objectives and obligations. We find that schools interpret public beneficiaries widely to include one or more of state school pupils, local communities, other charities, and general society through raising socially responsible adults. Private schools pursue their own goals through public benefit provision, and balance the advantages of public benefit activities against the costs. The schools are not constrained by the ‘more than tokenistic’ minimum set by the regulator. The findings highlight the difficulties faced by governments who seek to pursue redistributive educational policies through charitable law.
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Papers by Peter Taylor-Gooby
Britain remains mired in the most severe and prolonged economic crisis that it has faced since the 1930s. The financial crash of 2007 brought British growth to a sharp halt, while the subsequent double-dip recession has eaten away at living standards and dampened future prospects. In such a context the question of growth has acquired a renewed urgency, taking centre stage within British politics. Britain's old growth model, based on asset price inflation in the housing market and cheap consumer credit, is now defunct. But, as yet, no credible alternative has been proposed. The old growth model is dying but a new one has yet to be born. The crisis has raised many questions about the future of British growth. Is the attempt to reduce deficits and lower debt the right strategy to foster long-term recovery? Can a new approach deliver growth that is socially and environmentally sustainable? And what can be done to ensure the benefits of growth are shared more evenly in the future? This important collection of essays by leading commentators seeks to provide some much-needed answers.
To illustrated why and how academic research can impact policy-making, a range of topics including climate change, the response to greater ethnic and religious diversity, the debate about community and local area politics, democratisation, the future of public spending,nudge, population ageing, the international financial crisis, and the growth of popular disillusion with politics and politicians were all explored. These areas range across economic, social and political issues, and allow us to fully understand what is and will be the most challenging developments in British Society.
Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby, one of the seven authors of the book, said: “New Paradigms in Public Policy contributes to our understanding of governance and particularly of how the ideas that lead the policy agenda emerge and are reinforced. It will also be valuable in academic study of policy debate and help develop understanding of the policy issues which it examines. It is written by leading academics from the fields under discussion and draws on the most recent research.”
The chapter authors of New Paradigms in Public Policy are:
Andrew Gamble/University of Cambridge;
Peter Taylor-Gooby/University of Kent;
Ian Gough/London School of Economics;
Tariq Modood/University of Bristol;
Anne Power/London School of Economics;
Gerry Stoker/University of Southampton;
Pat Thane/ King’s College, London.
Publications
A Left Trilemma
Peter Taylor-Gooby
28 March 2012
Download Progressive public policy in the age of austerity
Why is it so hard for the left to produce a coherent and progressive response to the crisis, when market neoliberalism has so obviously failed? This new Policy Network paper argues that the British Labour party and other European left-of-centre parties are caught-up in a public policy trilemma.
The left must respond adequately to the economic crisis to be seen as competent, it must address the established themes in public opinion to be electable, and it must develop generous and inclusive policies, to be progressive.
The paper identifies conflicts in all three areas:
• Low public sector productivity growth and demographic shifts tighten already harsh spending constraints.
• Entrenched public suspicions of higher taxes for any but the distant rich and a public discourse which makes rigid distinctions between those who are deserving and undeserving of state welfare conflict with egalitarian or redistributive policies.
• Both spending constraints and the key themes in public opinion conflict with generous and inclusive policies.
In reviewing a range of policy programmes, A Left Trilemma reflects on the tough choices facing social democrats if they are to shift public discourse in a more supportive direction.
This book analyses the pressures on social citizenship from changes in work and the family, political actors, and population ageing, and the processes within government in the relentless international process of globalisation that have shaped the response. It examines the various social science approaches to agency and argues that the logic of rational action is able to explain how reciprocity arises and is sustained but offers a weak foundation for social inclusion and social trust. It will only sustain part of the welfare state. A detailed assessment of empirical evidence shows how the outcomes of the new policy framework correspond to its theoretical strengths and limitations. Reforms have achieved considerable success in delivering mass services efficiently. They are much less successful in redistributing to more vulnerable low income groups and in maintaining public trust in the structure of provision.
The risk is that mistrustful and disquieted voters may be unwilling to support high spending on health care, pensions and other benefits at a time when they are most needed. In short, the reform programme was undertaken for excellent reasons in a difficult international context, but risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
We discuss the basic issues in risk research, paying attention to the contributions from different academic disciplines and reviewing debates in the recent literature. It then moves on to examine work on risk across the main areas of activity, discussing recent research and identifying the themes that are currently subject to debate.
The areas covered in substantive chapters are: Crime; the Environment; Everyday Life & Leisure Time; Family & Partnership; Health & Illness; Life Course, Youth and Old Age; Media; Social and Public Policy; Risk Regulation and Management; Social Inequality, covering gender, ethnicity, disability and social class; as well as theoretical foundations and current issues in research.
Peter Taylor-Gooby argues that the current insistence of pressures to cut back highly valued services risks a further decline of trust in politicians. At the same time, these difficulties do offer an opportunity to open up an important and informed debate about how they can be tackled.
Public policy at a crossroads
Public policy in Britain, as in other developed countries, faces severe challenges from many directions. The continuing economic crisis and its aftermath bring these issues to the forefront of public debate, but risk obscuring the underlying issues behind immediate political tussles over the recovery programme, constitutional reform, bankers’ bonuses and other pressing questions.
This book tackles the basic questions that confront twenty-first-century policy-making in seven substantive chapters, each written by a leading expert in the field: finding a way forward for the British economy; the dilemma of coping with rising demand in the context of limited resources; how to respond to climate change; managing ethnic diversity as multiculturalism appears to have lost its way; whether demographic change equates with a growing burden of dependency; under what circumstances localism helps resolve concentrated neighbourhood problems; and how to overcome public disaffection with politics. A concluding chapter considers the more practical issue of developments in social science that might help it make a more forceful contribution to public policy.
The chapters analyse the contribution of social science to understanding the issues in each of these areas. They go on to review the range of possible developments in the medium-term future. We will first set out the contents of the individual chapters and then discuss the notion of policy paradigm that underlies the approach to the relationship between ideas and policy-making contained in them. We will move on to examine emerging themes in the relationship between government and other agencies bound up in policy-making, individual citizens, market actors and community activity, and conclude by reviewing the relationship between social science and public policy.
opportunities. This programme is attractive to business (more workers, better human capital and reduced social conflict to enhance productivity and profitability) and to citizens (more
widely accessible job-opportunities with better rewards): a relatively low-cost approach to the difficulties governments face in maintaining support and meeting social goals as inequalities widen.
The general move towards ‘new welfare’ gathered momentum during the past two decades, given extra impetus by the 2007–09 recession and subsequent stagnation. While employment rates rose during the prosperous years before the crisis, there was no commensurate reduction in poverty. Over the same period the share of economic growth returned to labour fell, labour markets were increasingly de-regulated and inequality increased. This raises the question of whether new welfare’s economic goals (higher employment, improved human capital) and social goals (better job quality and incomes) may come into conflict.
This paper examines data for seventeen European countries over the period 2001 to 2007. It shows that new welfare is much more successful at achieving higher employment than at
reducing poverty, even during prosperity, and that the approach pays insufficient attention to structural factors, such as the falling wage share, and to institutional issues, such as labour market deregulation.