Research in Public Policy Analysis and Management – serie

This series presents selected research papers dealing with important methodological and theoretical issues in the policy sciences, with research in policy-related disciplines, and applied research on issues in public policy analysis and public management. There is particular emphasis on research related to operations and design issues for governmental organizations.

This series presents selected research papers dealing with important methodological and theoretical issues in the policy sciences, with research in policy-related disciplines, and applied research on issues in public policy analysis and public management. There is particular emphasis on research related to operations and design issues for governmental organizations.

Governments around the world are criticized as inefficient, ineffective, too large, too costly, overly bureaucratic, overburdened by unnecessary rules, unresponsive to public needs, secretive, undemocratic, invasive into rights of citizens, self-serving, and failing in provision of the quantity and quality of services desired by the taxpaying public. Fiscal stress has plagued many governments, increasing the cry for less costly or just less government. Critics have exerted sustained pressure on politicians and public managers for transformational reform. Recommendations for change have included application of market and economic logic and private sector management methods to government. Managerial reform has been promoted on grounds that the public sector is organized and functions on many of the wrong principles and needs reinvention and renewal. Government reforms in response to reformist pressures have included restraint of spending and tax cuts, sales of public assets, privatization and contracting-out of services, increased performance measurement and auditing, output and outcomes based budgeting, and new accounting and reporting methods. Reform has been accompanied by promises of smaller, less interventionist and more decentralized government, improved efficiency and effectiveness, greater responsiveness and accountability to citizens, increased choice between public and private providers of services, a more 'entrepreneurial' public sector capable of cooperating with business. While it is apparent why politicians and elected officials often support new managerial methods, observers wonder whether the promises of reform can be delivered upon to provide benefits depicted so attractively. Dialogue on this question is active among public management scholars, practitioners, politicians, citizen groups and the media. Substantial elements of this dialogue are represented in this book.

Governments around the world are criticized as inefficient, ineffective, too large, too costly, overly bureaucratic, overburdened by unnecessary rules, unresponsive to public needs, secretive, undemocratic, invasive into rights of citizens, self-serving, and failing in provision of the quantity and quality of services desired by the taxpaying public. Fiscal stress has plagued many governments, increasing the cry for less costly or just less government. Critics have exerted sustained pressure on politicians and public managers for transformational reform. Recommendations for change have included application of market and economic logic and private sector management methods to government. Managerial reform has been promoted on grounds that the public sector is organized and functions on many of the wrong principles and needs reinvention and renewal. Government reforms in response to reformist pressures have included restraint of spending and tax cuts, sales of public assets, privatization and contracting-out of services, increased performance measurement and auditing, output and outcomes based budgeting, and new accounting and reporting methods. Reform has been accompanied by promises of smaller, less interventionist and more decentralized government, improved efficiency and effectiveness, greater responsiveness and accountability to citizens, increased choice between public and private providers of services, a more 'entrepreneurial' public sector capable of cooperating with business. While it is apparent why politicians and elected officials often support new managerial methods, observers wonder whether the promises of reform can be delivered upon to provide benefits depicted so attractively. Dialogue on this question is active among public management scholars, practitioners, politicians, citizen groups and the media. Substantial elements of this dialogue are represented in this book.

Dialogue has a long lineage but a relatively recent research tradition. The goal of this volume is to elevate dialogue onto the research agenda by addressing such questions as: how can we make dialogue actionable and effective in organizational practice? How can dialogue inform decision making in a particular problem domain or community of interest when multiple people, groups, and organizations are involved? How can dialogue be utilized to build more vibrant, democratic communities? To what extent can the Internet and new information technology support the dialogical process? How can we describe the relational field that dialogue creates and build a theory of social communication and information processing that explains the organization and dynamics of dialogue, and its implications for psychosocial function? The volume addresses these questions in four sections: the foundations, perspectives, practice and theory of dialogue. By design, the contributors draw from wide-ranging philosophical and disciplinary traditions: anthropology, communication, information, management, neuro-psychology, organization theory, philosophy, psychology, political science, public policy, quantum physics, and sociology. As dialogue attempts to break down the barriers among people, the authors defend a more robust understanding of dialogue that requires scholars and practitioners to move beyond the confines of one academic tradition and to study it in a more comprehensive and integrated way. The disciplinary reach of this title should attract scholars and practitioners interested in the general area of dialogue and communication, as well as related topics such as collaboration, public engagement, citizen participation, deliberative democracy, stakeholder relations, networks, interorganizational relationships, and community building.

This book is unique in that it explores public sector reform from a strategic management perspective. The authors whose work is represented in the book examine seven strategies for public management reform: (1) increases in accountability, (2) decentralization and delegation of authority and responsibility for decision making and management, (3) application of information technology to improve management and responsiveness of governments to citizens, (4) developing and improving management control systems in the public sector, (5) measures to reduce corruption in government, business and society, (6) development and use of performance indicators, and (7) integration of performance measurement and management in public organizations. Authors address the need for and application of various strategies, and impediments to implementation of each strategy. Case analysis is used to derive findings and conclusions.

This important volume looks at conflicts of interest, codes of ethics, and the regulation of corruption in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the European Community. It finds that there is less corruption than ever before, but the gap between public expectations and perceptions has nevertheless widened. Moreover, it questions the dominant academic approach to applied ethics, with its emphasis on training, standards and procedures, and, ultimately, regulation. In contrast, the authors featured in this volume argue that governance is a social process. Ethical governing means attending to the relational aftermath of complex decisions - the ways in which decisions and their execution affect and sustain social relationships. Moreover, applied ethical reasoning in this context must not only confront certain stock issues, but must also lead to widespread participation in decision making processes. Viewed in this way, ethical governing means a respectful discourse involving widespread participation of legitimate viewpoints. Consequently, the authors suggest that the nearly universal dissatisfaction with the state of public ethics is a manifestation of something deeper and more profound. As one author explains, public perceptions won't look up so long as politics remains a spectator sport, dominated by 'sleaze ball tactics and shrinking sound bites'.

Public administration scholars and practitioners are increasingly concerned with the need to broaden the field's scope beyond particularistic accounts of administration in given countries. The field of Comparative administration is, therefore, once again thriving. "Comparative Administration: The Essential Readings" is the first major collection of contributions of major field leaders in this millennium. In this comprehensive and engaging volume, Otenyo and Lind bring together seminal readings in comparative, development public administration and contemporary new public management scholarship. This authoritative and well balanced volume provides readers at all levels with a rare opportunity to contextualize the field's growth and evolution. In what is truly a remarkable collection of the field's best minds, the book is a rare combination of conceptual and truly comparative empirical works. Without endorsing specific methodologies, the volume is an exciting and succinct overview the field's past and current concerns and interests. An outstanding feature of this book is that it carefully combines both previously published and fresh works considered 'essential' because of their potential impact on the field's development. The reader will notice that while most of the chapters are broad-brush studies, the selected case-specific chapters are added to illuminate conceptual and theoretical insights. Organized around broad array of topics and themes that include; Methods and Growth of Comparative Public Administration, the Ecology of Administration, Administrative Development, and Development Administration, Planning, Decentralization and Rural Administration, New Public Management, Informatization in administrative settings, and International Administration, the editors seek to provide readers a broader context in which to comprehend public administration in a globalizing world. Hopefully, this timely volume is a valuable resource for a variety of audiences involved in public administration including students and practitioners all over the world.

In an international context, public management arrangements differ significantly from country to country, but also regionally and locally. One reason for these differences may be differences in culture resulting in differing views of the state and its institutions. This may sound trivial, but it becomes highly important when public management reform models are proposed and transferred from one country to others, such as was (and still is) the case with, for example, the new public management. Scholars in public management as well as internationally acting practitioners should be aware of the impact culture has on the possibilities and limits of concept transfers between different jurisdictions.Having said this, one precondition for a better consideration of cultural elements in public management reforms is a better understanding of culture itself. Among the public management community, cultural theory has gained considerable attention. There are, however, other concepts for the analysis of cultural facts that may be of interest to the subject, too. In this book, cultural influences (including organizational culture of public organizations) on public management and its reform are explored. The articles address definitions and conceptualizations of culture in the context of public management, cultural artifacts in public management, and give examples of cultural elements in public management from various countries. This volume helps to structure the discussion of cultural elements and points out approaches to study and incorporate cultural aspects in public management research and debate.

As corruption is a serious problem in many Asian countries their governments have introduced many anti-corruption measures since the 1950s. This book analyzes and evaluates the anti-corruption strategies employed in Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. These countries are selected because they represent the three major patterns of corruption control with Japan adopting Pattern 1 (anti-corruption laws without any anti-corruption agency [ACA]); India, the Philippines and Taiwan employing Pattern 2 (anti-corruption laws with multiple ACAs); and, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, and Mongolia belonging to Pattern 3 (anti-corruption laws with a single ACA). Among the ten countries only Singapore and Hong Kong SAR have succeeded in minimizing corruption because of the commitment of their political leaders in curbing corruption, their favorable policy contexts, and the impartial implementation of effective anti-corruption measures. On the other hand, the other eight Asian countries have failed to curb corruption because of the lack of political will, their unfavorable policy contexts, and their reliance on ineffective anti-corruption measures.

This volume is part of a series which presents selected research papers dealing with important methodological and theoretical issues in the policy sciences. Topics discussed in this volume include: the role of science in public policy; and public policy in developing and developed countries.

This series presents selected research papers dealing with important methodological and theoretical issues in the policy sciences, with research in policy-related disciplines, and applied research on issues in public policy analysis and public management.

Multifaceted social problems such as safety, social inclusion, poverty, mobility, rural development, city regeneration, or labour market integration require integrated approaches to steering. NPM-related fragmentation of policy and fragmentation of implementation lead to unsatisfactory public outcomes and a heightened experienced loss of control on the part of policy makers. Governments are therefore looking for new instruments to address the boundary-spanning nature of many social problems. In their quest for achieving valued social outcomes, they struggle with their new role, and the insufficiency of both markets and hierarchies. In this book, authors explore new organisational mechanisms, arrangements and ideas to deal with this fragmentation. New post-NPM steering and coordination practices come in various shapes and names, and current research suffers from considerable terminological confusion. The book first looks at various new organisational arrangements and mechanisms, including whole-of-government, collaborative governance, network governance, and outcome steering. It then goes on to unpack the outcomes these new steering instruments are supposed to achieve, and explores their effect on democracy, power, and the role of government.

What does it take to design effective government institutions and sustain positive changes? What have we learnt about the attempts to deliberately design and redesign public sector institutions in different countries? What works and what doesn't, and why? What happens when reforms fail? This book looks at what the existing academic literature tells us about these questions, and intends to answer these questions to generate and define theoretical and practical knowledge about deliberate (vs. evolutionary) public sector institutional change. It analyzes lessons from changes implemented by international development agencies working to reform public sector institutions in developing countries over the last five decades. The book details reforms in one such country; Kyrgyzstan, one of the more diligent nations in undertaking donor-guided reforms since its independence in 1991. It then presents a conceptual framework and analytical tools essential for understanding the processes used in deliberate institutional change, and in planning for and implementing institutional reform.

Corruption is a serious problem in many countries around the world, according to Transparency International's 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) and the World Bank's 2011 Control of Corruption governance indicator. However, some countries like New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Singapore and Hong Kong, have consistently performed better on these two indicators than other countries. While some research has been done in the form of case studies on combating corruption there has been no comparative study on how these five countries have succeeded in curbing corruption and the lessons to be learnt by other countries. This book seeks to explain why these five countries have succeeded in combating corruption; and identify the lessons which other countries can learn from these successful experiences. Of interest to policy-makers, anti-corruption practitioners and civil society activists, the edited book will also be a useful resource for undergraduate and graduate courses on corruption and governance in universities as well as for training courses on anti-corruption strategies conducted by anti-corruption agencies and international organizations in various countries.

Asian countries are highly diverse in terms of their wealth, culture, and historical experience. Yet, in different ways, they are working hard to improve public sector governance in areas such as democratic accountability, openness, transparency, integrity, government trust, high performance standards and combating corruption. The chapters in this book analyze and compare the experiences of Asian countries in carrying out governance reforms. Some of the questions tackled in this title are: how common reform packages designed for developed countries are implemented in developing countries? What happens in the reform diffusion process? What are the obstacles to reform success? The diversity of the Asian region is well reflected in these chapters, covering a range of topics, theories, methodologies, and findings. The book will be of interest to both academics and practitioners researching and working with public policy in the region.

During the past decade, globalization and democratization have been the major forces that helped transform the structures, functions, and processes of Asian public sectors. Nevertheless, these transformation efforts of Asian countries vary considerably depending on local context, and have met with different degrees of success. Some countries experienced smooth transformations. For others, the reform process has been more volatile. These issues were explored at a conference July 7-9, 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand, hosted by the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, and co-sponsored by the International Public Management Network, the Asia-Pacific Governance Institute, and Thailand Democracy Watch. This book presents some of the works contributed by participating scholars and practitioners at the conference. The contents fall into three categories: corruption and anti-corruption initiatives, public financial management reforms, and public management reforms with emphasis on performance and results.