Political Advice
Past, Present and Future
Published on 25. February 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-83860-120-1 (ISBN)
Description
Political advice has never seemed more prominent - or more problematic. This volume of essays speaks to a contemporary concern, set in a wider historical context. Political Advice: Past, Present and Future brings several very different voices to bear on the problem of advice and influence, the distinction in so far as it is valid between political and policy advice, the two-way parasitism of adviser and advised, the nature and idioms of political advice literature, the ever-pressing issue of access and exclusion, and the curious history of advisers' success and failure. With contributions from classics and literature as well as from history and politics, this volume treats political advice in an interdisciplinary fashion. Moreover, a unique practitioners' perspective on the problem of political advice is provided by the contributions of politicians, political advisers and former senior civil servants.
Reviews / Votes
Excellently quirky. * London Review of Books * Appreciated and despised in equal measure, political advisers have been at the heart of government decision-making for many centuries. This valuable collection of essays digs deep into the history and more recent practice of political advice to expose why these advisers, while sometimes controversial, have been so valued by generation after generation of our political leaders. * Ed Balls, former Shadow Chancellor, Cabinet Adviser and Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury * This richly compelling volume traces the mostly hidden history of political advice from Greek democracy to present-day spadocracy. I would advise any modern Machiavelli or rising Rasputin, as well as every politician and political historian, to heed its timely counsel. * David Armitage, Harvard University, co-author of The History Manifesto *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
360 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83860-120-1 (9781838601201)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2021
1st Edition
I.B. Tauris
€27.49
Available for download
E-Book
01/2021
1st Edition
I.B. Tauris
€27.49
Available for download
Persons
Jacqueline Rose is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of St Andrews. She is the author of Godly Kingship in Restoration England: The Politics of the Royal Supremacy (2011), which won the Whitfield Prize of the Royal Historical Society. Her recent research has been in the field of counsel and advice, and she was the editor of The Politics of Counsel in England and Scotland 1286-1707, published by the British Academy in 2016.
Colin Kidd is Wardlaw Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He is the author of five books including Subverting Scotland's Past (1993), Union and Unionisms (2008), and The World of Mr Casaubon (2016). He is a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books and the Guardian.
Colin Kidd is Wardlaw Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He is the author of five books including Subverting Scotland's Past (1993), Union and Unionisms (2008), and The World of Mr Casaubon (2016). He is a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books and the Guardian.
Content
Foreword: Political advising - Lord Butler
1. Political advice: Past, present - and future? - Colin Kidd and Jacqueline Rose
2. What would Perikles do, and why it still matters - asking the ancient Greek gods for political advice - Esther Eidinow
3. Obliquus ductus: Indirect political advice in the Renaissance - Joanne Paul
4. How not to do it: Poets and counsel, Thomas Wyatt to Geoffrey Hill - Colin Burrow
5. William Davison and the perils of advice in Elizabethan England - Jacqueline Rose
6. The parliamentary way of counsel - Paul Seaward
7. Smith as spad? Adam Smith and advice to politicians - Jesse Norman
8. A mirror for princes? British orientalists and the Persian Question - Ali M. Ansari
9. Reflections on the Central Policy Review Staff - William Waldegrave
10. Astrology and advice at the Reagan court - Colin Kidd
11. You've got to ask the right expert: Who gives political advice? - Marius S. Ostrowski
12. Advice in a time of belief: Civil service impartiality in two referendums - Jim Gallagher
13. Advising Trump - Rob Goodman
14. Managing the growing tension between politics and governance: Hard choices ahead for Whitehall and Westminster - Martin Donnelly
1. Political advice: Past, present - and future? - Colin Kidd and Jacqueline Rose
2. What would Perikles do, and why it still matters - asking the ancient Greek gods for political advice - Esther Eidinow
3. Obliquus ductus: Indirect political advice in the Renaissance - Joanne Paul
4. How not to do it: Poets and counsel, Thomas Wyatt to Geoffrey Hill - Colin Burrow
5. William Davison and the perils of advice in Elizabethan England - Jacqueline Rose
6. The parliamentary way of counsel - Paul Seaward
7. Smith as spad? Adam Smith and advice to politicians - Jesse Norman
8. A mirror for princes? British orientalists and the Persian Question - Ali M. Ansari
9. Reflections on the Central Policy Review Staff - William Waldegrave
10. Astrology and advice at the Reagan court - Colin Kidd
11. You've got to ask the right expert: Who gives political advice? - Marius S. Ostrowski
12. Advice in a time of belief: Civil service impartiality in two referendums - Jim Gallagher
13. Advising Trump - Rob Goodman
14. Managing the growing tension between politics and governance: Hard choices ahead for Whitehall and Westminster - Martin Donnelly