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Interpreting the unexpected: the case of AIDS policy making in Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Patricia Day  and
Rudolf Klein
Patricia Day
Affiliation:
Social Policy, University of Bath
Rudolf Klein
Affiliation:
Social Policy, University of Bath
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Abstract

This paper analyses the reactions of a government faced with an unpredictable and unexpected crisis with possible catastrophic long-term effects: the AIDS epidemic in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. First, the AIDS epidemic is defined as a case study of government forced to cope with uncertainty, moral ambiguity and the knowledge that there are no solutions, only ways of limiting the damage. Second, it examines the evolution of policy of British ministers, who initially preferred to ignore evidence of AIDS but were forced to act by signals threatening a popular backlash. They did so by creating a programme of action based on the advice and values of the medical profession and public health experts. The conclusion argues that this kind of policy response may be generalisable. When societies are faced with problems that do not appear to be soluble but which may imperil social cohesion they seek to create an elite consensus to treat them as technical matters, so insulating the policy process from possible disruptive populist pressures.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , July 1989 , pp. 337 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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