This is the first comprehensive examination of the Labour Administration's approach to the Civil Service. Based on an original account of power relations between the Government, Whitehall and the wider policy-making arena, and drawing on evidence compiled from over three hundred interviews by the author, it provides a unique insight into the approach to governing of the Labour Administration. It explores a variety of themes: the influence of Third Way thinking on Labour's approach to governing; the 1997 transition process; the extent to which Whitehall has been politicised; and the effectiveness of Labour's reforms in improving policy delivery. The book concludes by arguing that claims about the end of the Whitehall model and the emergence of a differentiated polity should be treated with caution. Richards demonstrates that Labour's reforms can be understood as an attempt to reconstitute the Westminster Model and sustain the asymmetric position of the core executive in the policy-making arena.