Policy outsiders

Abstract

As was apparent from the discussion of the budgetary process in Chapter 5, much of economic policy making is conducted by a relatively small group of insiders working in conditions of considerable secrecy. This would, of course, apply to many areas of policy making in Britain, and economic policy making is constrained to some extent by decision makers’ perceptions of what is tolerable to the electorate, although this is a constraint whose force often varies according to the distance from the next election. There are, nevertheless, a number of external actors that do seek to make inputs into the decision-making process. Although they are policy outsiders, this does not mean that they cannot be influential.