Three conceptualisations of the UK's state are identified: the overloaded state of the 1960s/1970s; the hollowed-out state of the 1980s/early 1990s; the congested state of the late 1990s. In this latter period the creation of collaborative institutions has become a core strategy in all areas of UK public policy. This rich web of linkages arose in response to the problems inherent in the fragmentation arising from hollowing-out. The resulting partnerships bring together public, private, voluntary and community sector actors. They operate between and around the core institutions of democratic government. These tertiary (partnership) structures have complex accountability relationships with primary (elected) and secondary (appointed) public bodies, as well as with other actors. The example of Northshire shows how inter-linked strategic and specific partnership boards create an alternative, collaborative governance structure for a locality which is largely outside democratic processes. This development has fu...

Changing images of the State: overloaded, hollowed-out, congested

The undergraduate minor in Public Policy introduces students from other departments and colleges to the field and practice of policy analysis. Employers and graduate schools recognize a completed minor as indicative of broader preparation than a single degree, not to mention curiosity and willingness to do extra work. The Public Policy minor also certifies interest and background in public affairs.

Public policy: domain names, digital television, CFP2000, ACM book on intellectual property and third on-line survey

Policies are made and pursue their goals through policy instruments. Furthermore, policy instruments have become a relevant topic in many policy fields due to their theoretical and empirical releva...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244019900568

The Knowns and Unknowns of Policy Instrument Analysis: Policy Tools and the Current Research Agenda on Policy Mixes:

In the United Kingdom (UK), the Labour Government is seeking to achieve fundamental change in the way local authorities are led and managed. To this end, it has introduced political and managerial reforms, central to which is the concept of ‘best value’. This new agenda, to which local authorities must respond, builds upon the changes which resulted from the Conservative era 1979–1997. Although Labour has abolished the centrepiece of Conservative policy towards local government, i.e. compulsory competitive tendering (CCT), Labour shares the belief of successive Conservative governments that local authorities must radically improve the way services are delivered. This article considers the nature of the changed local government environment in the UK, including the role, policy and service provision debates which have occurred in local government. It provides a conceptual framework within which to consider the degree of change which has occurred in local authority management. A typology of responses to chan...

LOCAL GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT: A model for the future?

The UK public sector has had a long‐standing policy commitment to equal opportunities, alongside limited access to managerial positions for women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. In place of equal opportunities, a new paradigm, managing diversity, originating in the USA, has been proposed. This paper examines five areas of difference between equal opportunities and managing diversity: an internal or external driving force; an operational or strategic focus; the perception of difference; the focus of action; and finally, the epistemological basis. The paper discusses the application of this model to the public sector, discussing power and equity, the relevance of the “business case” argument, the focus on customer responsiveness, and a possible explanation for the 1980s backlash. There are case studies of an NHS Trust and a local authority. The paper discusses necessary attitudinal changes and skills to implement the managing diversity paradigm in the public sector.

Managing diversity – an employment and service delivery challenge

While the cost of fraud is difficult to determine, it is significantly greater than other crimes. Nevertheless fraud has not been a policing priority either for governments or for individual police forces. The provision of policing resources has declined in favour of other policing objectives where there is a continuing emphasis on a political agenda concerned with public order and property crime. At the same time, the resources which are devoted to fraud have, as with the police generally, been subject those changes which reflect the themes of new public management (NPM). This review of the development of the policing of fraud in the UK draws upon the first full survey ever undertaken of UK police fraud squads. The purpose of the survey was to consider the structure, staffing and activities of the squads in the light of the changes to policing in the past decade, as well as the priorities determined by governments, to assess the implications for the future policing of fraud. The article concludes that, u...

New Public Management, Old Populism and the Policing of Fraud:

The nature of the risk or threat posed by ‘cyberfraud’ - fraud with a cyber dimension – is examined empirically based on data reported by the public and business to Action Fraud. These are used to examine the implications for a more effective risk-based response, both by category of fraud and also responding to cyberfraud generally, not just in the UK. A key characteristics of cyberfraud is that it can be globalised, unless there are major national differences in attractiveness of targets or in the organisation of control. This does not mean that all cyberfraud is international, however: not only do some involve face to face interactions at some stage of the crime cycle, but in online auction selling frauds, it appears to be common for the perpetrators and victims to reside in the same country. After reviewing patterns and costs of victimisation and their implications for control, the paper concludes that any law enforcement response must begin by being strategic: which other public and private sector bodies should be involved to do what; what should be the specific roles and responsibilities of the police and where ‘problem ownership’ should lie; what are we willing to pay for (in money and effort) for greater cybersecurity and how to reduce ‘market failure’ in its supply; and, how that security is going to be organised for and/or by the huge numbers of businesses and people that are (potentially) affected.

/pdf/cyberfraud-and-the-implications-for-effective-risk-based-2knefc40k7.pdf

Cyberfraud and the implications for effective risk-based responses: themes from UK research

The implications of economic cybercrime for policing

The UK government has been developing strategy on fraud since 2006 looking at its cost to the nation, as well as its presence in many other areas of criminality, from identity theft to organized crime. This article focuses on the police dimension of the UK's fraud strategy, and its assimilation and implementation in the context of other policies and priorities. To avoid being arrested before it achieves anything, the fresh impetus sought by the last of the strategy reviews must take account of the ‘facts on the ground’, such as diminished police fraud investigation resources resulting from financial cutbacks and other, competing, priorities for these reduced resources.

A case of arrested development? Delivering the UK National Fraud Strategy within competing policing policy priorities

Most policing activity in the area of UK public sector fraud is undertaken not by the police but by departmental investigators. This article explores the shifting rhetoric and on-the-ground efforts to escape departmental silos in order to address ‘the problem of fraud’ and fraudsters more efficiently and effectively via ‘joined up working’. These public sector reforms have been promoted principally by the National Audit Office and government. It reveals that these efforts have generally been modest in practice, because they have gone against the grain of departmental objectives and cultures. In the context of these experiences, the prospects for change in public–public and public–private partnerships are explored in the light of the UK government Fraud Review and the National Fraud Strategic Authority.

Alan Doig

Papers

New Public Management, Old Populism and the Policing of Fraud:

Cyberfraud and the implications for effective risk-based responses: themes from UK research

The implications of economic cybercrime for policing

A case of arrested development? Delivering the UK National Fraud Strategy within competing policing policy priorities

Inter-agency work and the UK public sector investigation of fraud, 1996–2006: joined-up rhetoric and disjointed reality