Roderick Arthur William Rhodes (born 15 August 1944), usually cited as R. A. W. Rhodes, is a British professor of political science.
Rod Rhodes is professor of government at the University of Southampton (UK) and director of the Centre for Political Ethnography. He is also emeritus professor of politics at the University of Newcastle (UK). Previously, he was: Professor of Government at Griffith University (2012–2015); director of the UK Economic and Social Research Council’s ‘Whitehall Programme’ (1994–1999); distinguished professor of political science at the Australian National University (2006–11); and director of the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University (2007-8). He is a life Vice-President and former Chair and president of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom; a Fellow of both the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia; and the Academy of Social Sciences (UK). He has also been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, editor of 'Public Administration: an international quarterly' from 1986 to 2011, and Treasurer of the Australian Political Studies Association, 2004–2011.
Early life and education
Rhodes was born in Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He was educated at a Moravian church school before working as a clerk. After studying at night school, he took a bachelor's degree at Bradford University. He also holds a postgraduate BLitt from Oxford University and a doctorate from Essex University. He emigrated from the United Kingdom to Australia in 2003, returning to the UK in 2012.
Research
Rhodes was influential in developing several ideas in present-day political science.
Differentiated polity
The idea that British government should be seen as a fragmented or differentiated polity rather than a unitary state has been hugely influential and widely debated. The idea ‘may be becoming the new orthodoxy’.
Core executive
With Patrick Dunleavy, Rhodes argued the conventional debate about the British executive, with its focus on the relative power of the prime minister and cabinet was too limited. The core functions of the British executive are to pull together and integrate central government policies and to act as final arbiters of conflicts between different elements of the government machine. These functions can be carried out by institutions other than prime minister and cabinet; for example, the Treasury and the Cabinet Office. By defining the core executive in functional terms, the key questions become: ‘who does what?’ and ‘who has what resources?’.
Policy networks
Rhodes pioneered the analysis of policy networks in British government. The term refers to sets of formal and informal institutional linkages between governmental and other actors structured around shared interests in public policymaking and implementation. These institutions are interdependent. Policies emerge from the bargaining between the networks’ members. The other actors commonly include the professions, trade unions and big business. Central departments need their co-operation because British government rarely delivers services itself. It uses other bodies. Also, there are too many groups to consult so government must aggregate interests. It needs the "legitimated" spokespeople for that policy area. The groups need the money and legislative authority that only government can provide.
Governance
The term refers to: a new process of governing; or a changed condition of ordered rule; or the new method by which society is governed. Rhodes applied the idea to public administration and public policy to refer the changing boundaries between public, private and voluntary sectors. For many policy arenas, these sectors are interdependent, so decisions are a product of their game-like interactions, rooted in trust and regulated by rules of the game negotiated and agreed by the participants. Such networks have significant degree of autonomy from the state - they are self-organising - although the state can indirectly and imperfectly steer them. In sum, governance refers to governing with and through networks; to network steering. The arguments that there had been a shift from ‘government to governance’, that it was the mix of bureaucracy, markets and networks that mattered, and a consequent ‘hollowing out of the state’ are now referred to, and debated, as ‘the Anglo-governance school’. Rhodes wrote the foundational texts of this school.
