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8 Governance: An Int'l J. Pol'y, Admin, & Institutions 1 (1995)

handle is hein.journals/gvnanlj8 and id is 1 raw text is: Innovative Leadership and Policy Change: Lessons From Thatcher JEREMY MOON* If we know all too much about our leaders we know far too little about leadership. James MacGregor Burns This article employs the concept of Innovative Leadership to challenge the literature on policy change, particularly its skepticism about executive-led policy innovation. It examines evidence of innovative leadership under the Thatcher governments in the face of the social, governmental, and economic and secular factors normally believed to structure policy choice in democra- cies. On the basis of this it considers the opportunities/resources available to executives wishing to pursue innovative leadership. The conclusions are qualified by reference to system-specific and environmental factors which may circumscribe Innovative Leadership. This article employs the concept of innovative leadership, characterized by strong political will and strong policy capacity, to challenge conven- tional explanations of policy change in modern democracies.1 It applies a conception of leadership to the study of executive politics, which is usually portrayed in the context of dependencies, constraints and inca- pacities. This is done through an investigation of the ways in which Margaret Thatcher and her government (1979-1990) made an impact on policies and policymaking practices which would not have been antici- pated by mainstream public policy literature (Castles 1982; Hall 1986; Heidenheimer et al. 1983; Hogwood and Peters 1983; Rose 1984; 1990; Wildavsky 1980). Despite the burgeoning Thatcher literature there has been little analysis of Thatcher as a leader in policymaking.2 This could be symptomatic of the fact that leadership has not enjoyed a prominent place in the democratic policymaking literature in general.3 Instances of innovative leadership provide this article's focus, although these are tem- pered by reference to policy failures. Thatcher's record challenges arguments prominent in the policymaking literature that innovative leadership could not be realized due to what can be called social, governmental, and economic and secular factors. The Thatcher findings will be weighed against the literature which, implicitly or explicitly, is skeptical about innovative leadership in public policy. Finally, the place of innovative leadership in the comparative study of democracy will be considered. * University of Western Australia Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration. Vol. 8, No. 1, January 1995 (pp. 1-25). © 1995 Blackwell Publishers, 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA, and 108 Crowley Road, Oxford, OX4, IJF, UK. ISSN 0952-1895