ABSTRACT
This chapter examines coordination within Whitehall, an important subject given the tendency towards departmentalism and agencification discussed in Chapter 2. It is also of crucial importance given the emphasis upon the voguish concept joined-up government (see p. 15), often now deployed in place of coordination. Its significance within contemporary central government is emphasised by Rhodes (2000c, p. 157), who cites one former-mandarin’s concern that Whitehall should ‘not reach the point where individual Departments and their Agencies become simply different unconnected elements…with no real working mechanisms for policy coordination’ (Rhodes’s emphasis).
