عنوان

Power, decision-making and the representation of interests :

TLets320721

Power, decision-making and the representation of interests :

[Thesis]

Reid, Gavin

a case study of compulsory competitive tendering for Local Authority Sport and Leisure Management

Glasgow Caledonian University

1996

Ph.D.

Glasgow Caledonian University

1996

This thesis provides a critical analysis of the extension of Compulsory CompetitiveTendering (CCT) to the management of local authority sport & leisure facilities. Ratherthan examining the impact of CCT on local authorities, the research looked at how localauthorities have defined the legislation and with what effect on the representation ofinterests. It achieves this by using the concept of 'power' to inform its institutionaleconomic analytical framework and methodological process.Chapter 1 provides a brief definition of the study's key terms and their relevance tosport and leisure policy-making. A historical analysis of the local authority role inrecreation from the pre-industrial to the present is put forward in Chapter 2. Thisseeks to explain the process of developments in public policy for leisure and thushighlight factors with the potential to impact on the social construction of the sport andleisure market. This serves to put CCT, or more specifically the problem of competitionfor local authorities, in its historical context. Chapter 3 outlines the study'smethodological process which is informed by a particular model of power (Lukes, S.1974 Power: A Radical View). In Chapter 4 the results of a large scale postal survey oflocal authority Chief Leisure Officers and Directors of commercial leisure companiesare put forward to give initial notice of the 'winners and losers' in the CCT process andthe extent of activity and inactivity of particular interest groups.Chapters 5 & 6 provide a theoretical progression within the field of institutionaleconomics that is capable of understanding the political realities of the CCT process. Aninitial transactions cost analytical framework is put forward in Chapter 5 and theninformed by an evolutionary institutional economic analysis in Chapter 6. Neoclassical,transactions cost and old institutional economic theory are criticised for having a limitedconceptualisation of power and a resultant inadequate appreciation of how more subtleprocesses can serve to obstruct some interests and encourage others in the competitionfor sport and leisure contract specifications.Chapters 7 & 8 apply the new methodological process and analytical framework to twoindepth case studies. These survey a range of interested 'actors' on a range of issues tohighlight if, how and why some issues (and thus people) are able to reach the CCTdecision-making process while others are organised out. Relevant written materialwithin each authority is also considered to explain possible variations between theoryand practice. The aim is to show how the organisation of the process of decision-makingcan influence the competition for contract specifications and what are perceived asacceptable/unacceptable costs. Recommendations are then put forward that couldovercome perceived obstacles to a greater representation of interestsChapter 9 informs the previous economic analyses by using practitioners' and users'responses from both case studies. In particular. an effort is made to provide a critiqueof transactions cost theory as it has been applied to CCT for sport and leisure, while alsoputting forward an evolutionary institutional economic analysis that appreciates the roleof power, values and ideology.Chapter 10 concludes with an overview of how the thesis fulfils the academicrequirements of a doctoral research project

Political science

Reid, Gavin

Glasgow Caledonian University

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y