Peter Self's Legacy: Economic Hegemony and the Public Domain

Abstract

Peter Self (1919-1999) was a participant in the policy-making domain as well as a distinguished academic. This assessment is primarily concerned with his contribution to the academic study of political science, including the sub-disciplines of public policy and public administration. It selects four ‘volumes of influence’ spanning the period from 1972 to 2000. The evaluation particularly focuses upon the relevance of Self's work to on-going predicaments faced by governments, not least the light that work continues to shed on issues inherent in the public management paradigm so dominant in the discourse of the public domain during the last 25 years. It can be contended that Self's social democratic mindset had not fully come to terms with the changing parameters within which governments nowadays must operate and that, as such, he was very much a creature of the 20th rather than the 21st century. Yet, by reaffirming the importance of the public domain in addressing the problems and challenges of contemporary society, the selected work was unusual in providing a coherent narrative. Moreover, in delineating dilemmas arising from conflicting administrative values, Self elucidated underlying administrative tensions that continue to bedevil ‘third-wayism’.

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