Lobbying, Administrative Reform and Policy Styles. The Case of Land Drainage

Abstract

In this article we analyse the successful attempt by a group of interests concerned with water reorganization during the early 1970s to prevent a radical change in administrative arrangements concerning land drainage. Despite the apparently esoteric nature of the policy area, the ‘politics of land drainage’ was fundamentally concerned with the important matter of what has been called ‘the business concept’ of government. The case study also provides a useful insight into the way in which established interests may have succeeded in ‘colonizing’ certain central government departments. This suggests that a model of pressure group activity depicting pressure on the centre may be misleading for certain areas of policy. We also suggest that the evidence provided by a study of the politics of water reorganization sheds some light on contrasting departmental styles of policy-making.