Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:24:47.138Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Territory and Public Employment: A General Model and British Evidence*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Richard Parry
Richard Parry
Affiliation:
Department of Politics, University of Edinburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A model of the territorial distribution of public employment within a country is presented, and tested with evidence from the United Kingdom in 1977. Three influences are suggested to account for the pattern of territorial variation: proportionality (an even distribution after standardisation for area and client group characteristics); the structure of the public sector (the presence of industries and services that must be concentrated in some places) and political discretion. These are then related to different activities of government. The first two influences are shown to account for much, though not all, of the territorial variation between United Kingdom nations and regions in 1977, substantial though this was, with Northern Ireland having nearly twice the level of public employment of the West Midlands. Location patterns tend to be byproducts of decisions taken on functional grounds, with structural constraints and service entitlements having a much greater impact than political choice.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , May 1981 , pp. 221 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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

REFERENCES

Bird, Richard M. (1979) with Bucovetsky, M. W. and Foot, D. K., The Growth of Public Employment in Canada. Toronto: Butterworths for the Institute for Research on Public Policy.Google Scholar
Central Statistical Office (1981) A Comparison of Public Services Employment in the United Kingdom with Five Other European Countries (Output Measures Occasional Paper 13). London: Central Statistical Office.Google Scholar
Cox, Kevin R., Reynolds, David R., and Rokkan, Stein (eds.) (1974) Locational Approaches to Power and Conflict. New York: Halsted Press.Google Scholar
Davies, Bleddyn (1968) Social Needs and Resources in Local Services. London: Michael Joseph.Google Scholar
Davies, Bleddyn (1977) Social services studies and the explanation of policy outcomes. Policy and Politics, 5, 41–59.Google Scholar
HM Treasury (1979) Needs Assessment Study Report. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Hogwood, Brian and Lindley, Peter (1980) Which English Regions? an Analysis of the Regional Boundaries used by Government. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde Studies in Public Policy No. 50.Google Scholar
Klein, Rudolf and Buxton, Martin (1978) Allocating Health Resources. (Royal Commission on the National Health Service Research Paper 3.) London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Martin, John P. (1980) Public sector employment trends in western industrialised countries. Paper presented to Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance, Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Marquand, Judith (1980) Measuring the Effects and Costs of Regional Incentives. London: Government Economic Service Working Paper No. 32.Google Scholar
Merrison Report (1980) Royal Commission on the National Health Service Report. London: HMSO (Cmnd 7615).Google Scholar
Maynard, Alan and Ludbrook, Anne (1980) Budget allocation in the national Health Service, Journal of Social Policy, 9, 289–312.Google Scholar
McCrone, Gavin (1969) Regional Policy in Britain. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Parry, Richard (1980 a) United Kingdom Public Employment: Patterns of Change 1951–1976. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde Studies in Public Policy No. 62.Google Scholar
Parry, Richard (1980 b) The Territorial Dimension in United Kingdom Public Employment. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde Studies in Public Policy No. 65.Google Scholar
Richard, Parry (1980 c) The rise and fall of Civil Service dispersal to Scotland. In Drucker, N. and Drucker, H. M. (eds.), The Scottish Government Yearbook 1981. Edinburgh: Paul Harris.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard (1980) Cross-National Public Employment: a Multi-Dimensional Comparative Analysis. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde Studies in Public Policy No. 61.Google Scholar
Semple, M. (1979) Employment in the public and private sectors 1961–78, Economic Trends, 313 (11 1979), 90–108.Google Scholar
US Bureau of the Census (1978) Compendium of Public Employment (GC 77(3)–2). Washington DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar