This paper examines the character and process of managerial reform in the British civil service since the Fulton Report of 1968. It considers two types of interpretation — 'grand strategy' and 'ad hoc'. These it links, for purely analytical purposes, to two epistemologies, macro-positivism and interpretivism respectively. Grand strategy interpretations have a good deal of plausibility. There appears to have been almost a seamless, progressive sequence of successive initiatives, unfolding like a great scroll, especially during the 1980s and 1990s. Many of the reforms are mutually reinforcing, giving the appearance of a coherent whole. Yet even within the canons of macro-positivism the evidence for grand strategy interpretations is ambiguous. And more fundamental questions arise from an application of interpretivist perspectives which deny many of the positivist assumptions with which grand strategy interpretations are implicated. Interpretivism has something to offer: its potential has scarcely been exploited. But it, too, has limitations and is unlikely on its own to satisfy Whitehall watchers. There is something to be said for a combined approach, though this may not be easy.
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