‘Arm’s Length but Hands On’. Mapping the New Governance: The Department of National Heritage and Cultural Politics in Britain

Abstract

This article uses the Department of National Heritage (DNH) founded in 1992 to illustrate the current debate over changing governance in Britain (such as the hollow core and self‐steering networks) given the development of small, central policy‐oriented ministries supervising a penumbra of policy networks. The article argues that the DNH has at its disposal a number of power resources – ministerial activism, policy review and guidance, systematic review, and finance – which enable it to give a determined steer to its autonomous networks. The implication of this is that real structural change should not obscure the resources at the disposal of the centre in their relationship with their policy networks: government is not just another organization.