The Strategic, Enabling State: A Case Study of the UK, 1997‐2007

While several countries have introduced strategic planning and management into the work of government and the civil service, there has been some international interest in the British Government's development of strategic management in the period from 1997 to 2007. This paper begins by setting out the characteristics of the development of strategic management, which included a phase of producing departmental strategic plans during 2003‐04. It shows that the government's strategic planning was politically owned. The plans were not formulated by civil servants and rubber stamped by ministers. An analysis of key planning documents for the National Health Service, including the one produced in 2004 as a strategic plan, shows that strategic thinking was emergent. The paper concludes with an observation on the limitations of ministerial‐led strategic planning in a government seeking to realise a state model of being strategic and enabling.