The growth and determinants of the United Kingdom public sector employment.

Understanding the true intrinsic dynamics of a complex system is a necessary requirement to an accurate understanding of the nature, characteristics and function of that system and ultimately its manipulation and control. The United Kingdom public sector is an example of a complex system. Hence, an accurate understanding of the structure, conduct and performance of the United Kingdom public sector depends on an accurate understanding of its true intrinsic dynamics. This understanding will be of benefit in the processes of management and control, policy formulation and conclusions, risk management and uncertainty in both the short and medium term. In the long term, the expectation is that there will be an array of secondary effects due to the efficient utilisation of scarce resources and so will impose a dynamic structure on the economy and provide benefits for future generations. This thesis focuses attention on the structure, conduct and performance of the U.K. public sector and considers aspects of its intrinsic dynamic nature. The peculiar nature of this dynamics is such that it will be present regardless of the colour of the Government of the day. However, the process of accurate understanding of public sector dynamics is not a simple nor indeed costless process. Further, the expectation is that the underlying dynamics is influenced in a number of ways especially by the Government of the day. For example, the Government of the day, while seeking to achieve broad macroeconomic objectives, upholding the public and national interests and constrained by its political ideology, will act as an intervention on the economy thus transforming its structure, conduct and subsequent performance, temporarily or permanently. Lastly, the problem of accurate identification is further compounded by an array of other domestic and international influences on the U.K. public sector.