ABSTRACT
Previous chapters showed how many aspects of security and foreign policy are insulated from democratic scrutiny and debate. This and the two following chapters will examine contrasting styles of decision making on the economy, social affairs and equal opportunities. Of all these, management of the economy is the ‘master’ policy area. Put simply, the level and quality of almost all government-provided services depend on public spending, and spending in turn is a product of the ways in which governments manage the economy. The chapter will first attempt to place spending in Britain in a comparative and historical context. It will then distinguish between macro and microeconomic policy and move on to discuss the institutional context and the style and substance of decision making in this area. The chapter will conclude by pointing up the extent to which international events are now a major influence and how this will affect the likely direction of policy making over the next few years. It therefore covers:
the historical and comparative context of economic policy
the basics of economic policy
the institutional context, characterised above all by centralisation
the style and substance of policy making: a new orthodoxy?
the internationalisation of economic policy making.
