Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T16:26:19.191Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ‘British Policy Style’ and Mental Health: Beyond the Headlines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2009

PAUL CAIRNEY
PAUL CAIRNEY*
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB243QY email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent Mental Health Acts provide evidence of diverging UK and Scottish government policy styles. The UK legislative process lasted almost ten years following attempts by ministers to impose decisions and an unprecedented level of sustained opposition from interest groups. In contrast, the consultation process in Scotland was consensual, producing high levels of stakeholder ‘ownership’. This article considers two narratives on the generalisability of this experience. The first suggests that it confirms a ‘majoritarian’ British policy style, based on the centralisation of power afforded by a first-past-the-post electoral system (Lijphart, 1999). Diverging styles are likely because widespread hopes for consensus politics in the devolved territories have been underpinned by proportional representation. The second suggests that most policy-making is consensual, based on the diffusion of power across policy sectors and the ‘logic of consultation’ between governments and interest groups (Jordan and Richardson, 1982). The legislative process deviated temporarily from the ‘normal’ British policy style which is more apparent when we consider mental health policy as a whole. Overall, the evidence points to more than one picture of British styles; it suggests that broad conclusions on ‘majoritarian’ systems must be qualified by detailed empirical investigation.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , October 2009 , pp. 671 - 688
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adam, S. and Kriesi, H. (2007), ‘The network approach’, in Sabatier, P. (ed.), Theories of the Policy Process, second edition, Cambridge, MA: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Cairney, P. (2002), ‘New public management and the Thatcher health care legacy’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 4: 3, 375–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cairney, P. (2008), ‘Has devolution changed the British policy style?’, British Politics, 3: 3, 350–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bevir, M. and Rhodes, R. A. W. (2006), Governance Stories, London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutliffe, J. R. and Hannigan, B. (2001), ‘Mass media, “monsters” and mental health clients’, Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 8: 315–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department of Health (1999a), National Service Framework for Mental Health, http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4009598Google Scholar
Department of Health (1999b), Review of the Mental Health Act 1983: Report of the Expert Committee (The Richardson Committee), London: Department of Health.Google Scholar
Eastman, N. (1999), ‘Public health psychiatry or crime prevention?’, British Medical Journal, 318: 549–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gavaghan, C. (2007), ‘A Tarasoff for Europe?’, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 30: 3, 255–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glennerster, H. (2004), ‘Ennals, David Hedley (1922–1995)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/59129.Google Scholar
Gostin, L. (2000), ‘Human rights of persons with mental disabilities’, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 23: 2, 125–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greer, S. and Jarman, H. (2008), ‘Policy styles and devolution’, in Trench, A. (ed.), The State of the Nations 2008, London: Imprint Academic.Google Scholar
Hotopf, M., Wall, S., Buchanan, A., Wesselly, S. and Churchill, R. (2000), ‘Changing patterns in the use of the Mental Health Act 1983 in England, 1984–1996’, British Journal of Psychiatry, 176: 479–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jordan, A. G. and Maloney, W. A. (1997), ‘Accounting for subgovernments’, Administration and Society, 29: 5, 557–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordan, A. G. and Richardson, J. J. (1982), ‘The British policy style or the logic of negotiation?’, in Richardson, J. J. (ed.), Policy Styles in Western Europe, London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Jordan, A. G. and Richardson, J. J. (1987), Government and Pressure Groups in Britain, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Keating, M. (2005), The Government of Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Keating, M. and Stevenson, L. (2001), ‘Submission to the Scottish Parliament Procedures Committee Inquiry into CSG proposals and their implementation’, http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/historic/procedures/reports-03/prr03-03-01.htm.Google Scholar
Keating, M., Cairney, P. and Hepburn, E. forthcoming, 2009, ‘Territorial policy communities and devolution in the United Kingdom’, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriesi, H., Adam, S. and Jochum, M. (2006), ‘Comparative analysis of policy networks in Western Europe’, Journal of European Public Policy, 13: 3, 341–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lijphart, A. (1999), Patterns of Democracy, London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Maloney, W. A., Jordan, A. G. and McLaughlin, A. M. (1994), ‘Interest groups and public policy’, Journal of Public Policy, 14: 1, 17–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, D. and Rhodes, R. A. W. (eds.) (1992), Implementing Thatcherite Policies, Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Marsh, D., Richards, D. and Smith, M. J. (2001), Changing Patterns of Governance in the United Kingdom, London: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mental Health Alliance (2005), ‘Government policies’, http://www.mentalhealthalliance.org.uk/mentalhealthbill/governmentpolicies.html.Google Scholar
McGarvey, N. and Cairney, P. (2008), Scottish Politics, London: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Page, E. (2006), ‘How policy is really made’, Public Management and Policy Association, http://personal.lse.ac.uk/Pagee/Papers/PMPA%20Ed%20Page%202006.pdf.Google Scholar
Paterson, B. and Stark, C. (2001), ‘Social policy and mental illness in the 1990s’, Journal of Psychiatry and Mental Health Nursing, 8: 257–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pilgrim, D. (2005), ‘Defining mental disorder’, Journal of Mental Health, 14: 5, 435–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilgrim, D. (2007), ‘New “mental health” legislation for England and Wales’, Journal of Social Policy, 36: 1, 79–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prior, P. M. (2007), ‘Mentally disordered offenders and the European Court of Human Rights’, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 30: 6, 546–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richardson, J. J. (ed.) (1982), Policy Styles in Western Europe, London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Richardson, J. J. (2000), ‘Government, interest groups and policy change’, Political Studies, 48: 1006–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, J. J., Gustafsson, G. and Jordan, G. (1982), ‘The concept of policy style’, in Richardson, J. J. (ed.), Policy Styles in Western Europe, London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Roberts, A. (2003), ‘Mental health history timeline’, http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/study/mhhtim.htm#1983.Google Scholar
Rogers, A. and Pilgrim, D. (2001), Mental Health Policy in Britain, Basingstoke: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scottish Constitutional Convention (1995), Scotland's Parliament, Scotland's Right, http://www.almac.co.uk/business_park/scc/.Google Scholar
Scottish Executive (2000), Report of the Committee on Serious Violent and Sexual Offenders (The MacLean Report), http://www.scotland.gov.uk/maclean/docs/svso-00.asp.Google Scholar
Scottish Executive (2001), New Directions (The Millan Report), http://www.scotland.gov.uk/health/mentalhealthlaw/millan/Report/rnhs-00.asp.Google Scholar
SPICE (Scottish Parliament Information Centre) (1999a), ‘The Noel Ruddle Case’, Research Note 99/33, http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/pdf_res_notes/rn99-33.pdf.Google Scholar
SPICE (1999b), ‘Mental Health (Public Safety And Appeals) (Scotland) Bill’, Research Paper 99/09, http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/pdf_res_papers/rp99-09.pdf.Google Scholar
Szmukler, G. and Holloway, F. (2000), ‘Reform of the Mental Health Act: health or safety’, British Journal of Psychiatry, 177: 196–200.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, S. (2004), ‘The principle of equivalence and the future of mental health care in prisons’, British Journal of Psychiatry, 184: 5–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed