Inheritance in Public Policy: Change Without Choice in Britain

Although politicians promise innovation and change when they run for office, once elected they find they have inherited commitments to programs initiated by their predecessors, legacies that severely limit their freedom of choice. In this trail-blazing work, based on a unique study of hundreds of public programs in effect in Britain since WWII, Richard Rose and Phillip L. Davies systematically examine the ways in which decisions made by past generations of administrators control policy-making in the present.