Debate: ‘Can't govern’, ‘won't govern’—the strange confluence of governance and neoliberalism

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Notes

* Calculated from Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis (PESA) 2012, Chapter 4 supplementary spreadsheets that cover 1965–66 to 2014–15. The arithmetical average is 42.8% of GDP.

* The forecast for Total Management Expenditure (TME) as a percentage of GDP by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) in their Economic and Fiscal Outlook reports for March 2015, July 2015 and November 2015 for the year 2019–20 was, successively, 36.0% (table 4.15); 36.3% (table 2.14) and 36.5% (table 2.15). The relative stability of this number strongly suggests it is now effectively a target for the chancellor to get public spending permanently down to this sort of level.

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Notes on contributors

Colin Talbot

Colin Talbot is Professor of Government, University of Manchester, UK