The Growth of Government The Development of Ideas about the Role of the State and the Machinery and Functions of Government in Britain since 1789

1.The Growth of Government Part 1: Changing Ideas About the Role of Government Since 1780 2. The Classical Economists and Government 3. Who Killed Laissez-Faire? 4. The Keynesian Revolution Part 2: The Development of the Machinery and Functions of Government Since 1780 5. The Eighteenth Century Inheritance 6. The Machinery and Functions of Nineteenth century Government 1815–1914 7. The Machinery and Functions of Twentieth Century Government 1914–1939 8. The Machinery and Functions of Twentieth Century Government from 1939.

Biography

Emeritus Professor Geoffrey K. Fry who died in 2023 spent his career at the University of Leeds in the field of British Government and Administration having studied for his doctorate at the LSE. A prolific author of nine books and over forty papers, he is perhaps best known for his highly successful book Statesmen in Disguise (1969), a study of the Administrative Class of the UK Civil Service from 1853 to 1966, that became the standard history of the Higher Civil Service.

He followed up with The Growth of Government (1979) which looked at the development of the role of the state, machinery and function of government since 1780. The timing of the publication, appropriately enough, aligning with the arrival of Thatcherism and the associated reform agenda.

Through books such as The Administrative ‘Revolution’ in Whitehall, The Changing Civil Service (1985), Reforming the Civil Service (1993) and Policy and Management in the British Civil Service (1995); Fry explores a range of themes including the machinery of government, the changes to ministerial responsibilities, the reform agenda, management effectiveness and the post war super-ministries. In his later works, Fry published a trio of titles about British political history covering the period of 1931 to 1990 entitled The Politics of Crisis (2001), The Politics of Decline (2005), The Politics of the Thatcher Revolution (2008).

Across his academic research and writing Fry drew on his working class upbringing and experience of working in the Civil Service. His background and life experience was one of the reasons for his non-conformist perspective. A rigorous researcher and meticulous academic, he frequently sought out insights from the rank and file Civil Servants through digesting their own association publications rather than solely focusing on the Whitehall elite.

Fry consistently wrote against the prevailing academic viewpoint of the time particularly in the analysis of Civil Service reform and their effectiveness, or lack thereof. He often credited this ability to not being aligned with a particular political tribe which gave him the freedom to write on his own terms.

He used his talent of being able to talk to anyone and his engaging matter to find political gems in the most unlikely of places. Famously quizzing the University of Leeds cleaners on who they thought would win the 1992 UK General Election. The cleaners got it right unlike the leading political scientists of the day.

Original Review of The Growth of Government:

‘… many of the historical connections make fascinating reading: Churchill as founder of the network of labour exchanges and of State co-ownership of Anglo-Persian, now BP; Lloyd George fighting the “departmental bindweed of red tape” to establish the Ministry of Munitions virtually single-handed in 1915, and forcing the admirals to adopt the convoy system two years later; Chamberlain’s skill as a departmental Minister…’ Roger Wettenhall, Political Science Vol 34, Issue 2 (1982).