Overload, decline and government failure: A review of 60 years of UK crisis and crisis literature

Following the 2008 financial crisis and Brexit it has been argued that the UK is in a ‘permacrisis’ with declining public services, declining legitimacy of political institutions and a long period of slow economic growth. Yet, the idea of Britain in crisis or decline is not new. Indeed, going back to the 1960s there has been a significant body of literature focusing on the crisis of the British state. The aim of this review is to examine the changing nature of the ‘crisis debates’ from the 1960s to the current day. This review argues that while there is considerable disagreement on the causes of crisis, often on ideological grounds, there are a number of commonalities, including a recurring focus on institutional weakness, overcentralisation, the erosion of state capacity, and the failure to develop a coherent long-term political economy