(De)politicization and the politics of Containment: Reconceptualizing the role of the public inquiry within British Governance

Critch, Nathan ORCID: 0000-0002-2083-8420 (2024). (De)politicization and the politics of Containment: Reconceptualizing the role of the public inquiry within British Governance. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the role public inquiries play within British governance. Public inquiries are called in response to high-profile matters of public concern and are tasked with investigating these independently of Parliament. Ostensibly, inquiries deliver accountability, policy learning and an accurate account of what went wrong. From a more critical perspective, however, public inquiries are a tool of the state, whose usage primarily benefits state managers in their attempts to manage crises, avoid blame, and secure their survival and legitimacy. Adopting a statecraft perspective, which focusses on the role inquiries play within the politics of governing, and drawing on archival material, parliamentary debates, inquiry reports and secondary literature related to 14 inquiries, the thesis offers a reassessment of what state managers hope to achieve when they initiate inquiries. It is argued that inquiries are utilized strategically and rhetorically by state managers to relieve pressure immediately post-crises, maintain governmental autonomy in the face of demands for change from below, and avoid blame for failings. In detailing empirically the processes by which state managers utilize inquiries as part of attempts to achieve these aims, the thesis ultimately arrives at a reconceptualization of the public inquiry’s position within British governance. The public inquiry is situated within ongoing processes working to depoliticize crises and contain popular discontent by funnelling it into formalized political arenas where it can be managed and moderated. This reconceptualization of inquiry functionality reveals the elitist, closed-off nature of British democracy and Britain’s formal political institutions. This also indicates the disruptive effects popular discontent can have on crisis management, and that it is a key danger that state managers must seek to quell.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):