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Understanding and Explaining Civil Service Reform: A Reply to Dowding and James

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2004

DAVID MARSH
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Birmingham School of Politics and Communication Studies, University of Liverpool Department of Politics, University of Sheffield
DAVID RICHARDS
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Birmingham School of Politics and Communication Studies, University of Liverpool Department of Politics, University of Sheffield
MARTIN J. SMITH
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Birmingham School of Politics and Communication Studies, University of Liverpool Department of Politics, University of Sheffield

Abstract

Dowding and James's response to our critique of the bureau-shaping model makes some important criticisms that we welcome. However, we suggest that they ignore the empirical evidence we presented in our original article (because of their narrow definition of acceptable data) and we believe that they misunderstand our arguments because of the positivist paradigm within which they operate. Our response covers three main issues – epistemology, methods and evidence.

Type
Notes and Comments
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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