ABSTRACT
There are two broad positions to choose between in examining the organisation of Government. On the one hand it is possible to accept some ‘givens’: that we know (reasonably well) what we understand by ‘Government’ and to agonise over the concept displaces attention from problems of substance. Richard Rose (1984:13) has written in such a vein and managed to greatly illuminate the subject – though this aspect of his approach is challenged here. He defined Government organisations ‘as formal administrative structures established by the constitution or public laws, headed by officials elected by citizens or appointed by elected officials’. This can be labelled the two-box image. It is reasonably easy in this version to separate out into their boxes, Government (G) and non-Government (NG).
