Using the theory of representative bureaucracy, this paper investigates the relationship between women police officers and sexual assault reports and arrests. The theoretical contribution is to establish a case in which representation is likely to occur, even without a conscious effort on the part of the bureaucrat involved but simply because of the shared experiences of the bureaucrat and the client. Based on a pooled time series of 60 urban areas over an eight-year time frame, this study finds that the percentage of women police officers is positively associated with the number of reports of sexual assault and with the number of arrests for sexual assault.

Gender, Representative Bureaucracy, and Law Enforcement: The Case of Sexual Assault

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/8181.pdf

Measuring Public Sector Capacity

Using evaluation to enhance institutional learning and change: recent experiences with agricultural research and development

This essay reviews the literature on the politics of bureaucracy in the developing world, with a focus on service delivery and bureaucratic performance. We survey classic topics and themes such as the developmental state, principal-agent relations, and the efficient grease hypothesis, and link them to new research findings in political science, sociology, and economics. We identify the concept of embeddedness as an important yet still underexplored framework that cuts across disciplines and which may be used to understand bureaucratic performance and service delivery. Looking forward, we outline a framework for conceptualizing bureaucratic action by exploiting variation across time, space, task, and client, and identify promising areas for further research on the bureaucrat-citizen encounter in developing countries.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=2798912

Bureaucracy and Service Delivery

This essay reviews the literature on the politics of bureaucracy in the developing world, with a focus on service delivery and bureaucratic performance. This survey classic topics and themes such as the developmental state, principal-agent relations, and the ancient Greece hypothesis, and link them to new research findings in political science, sociology, and economics. This review identify the concept of embeddedness as an important yet still under explored framework that cuts across disciplines and which may be used to understand bureaucratic performance and service delivery. Looking forward, the out-line a framework for conceptualizing bureaucratic action by exploiting variation across time, space, task, and client, and identify promising areas for further research on the bureaucrat-citizen encounter in developing countries.

The issue of sustainability, its definition and measurement, is crucial to current debates in development policy and aid reform. But while all donors demand it few define it in operational terms. This poses serious methodological challenges for evaluators since there are no accepted and uncontested indicators of institutional sustainability. They therefore resort to using quantitative measures such as the calculation of a ‘sustainability rate’.



This paper examines different views of institutional sustainability and identifies some of their shortcomings from the standpoint of programme evaluation. Institutional sustainability is seen as a capacity rather than a financial issue. It then suggests the need for qualitative indicators of sustainability and argues that the institution's capacity to learn—as reflected in the relative importance accorded to action and reflection, the way in which the institution deals with ‘discordant information’, and its capacity to conduct and use evaluations—is a key aspect of sustainability. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Evaluating institutional sustainability in development programmes: beyond dollars and cents

Representativeness and diversity in public institutions are among the principles of good and democratic governance, but a commitment to achieving ‘balance’ is far easier said than done, particularly in the context of small, ethnically divided societies in which political mobilization is based on ethnic identity. Trinidad and Guyana are two such societies in which political power was held for a long time by a dominant ethnic group and has recently been transferred to the former ‘out group’. Specifically, politics in both territories was dominated by parties that are identified with the urban African populations, whereas the main opposition parties drew their electoral support almost exclusively from rural Indian groups. In both cases the Indian ‘out group’ accused the African ‘in group’ of favouring members of the latter group—and, conversely, of discriminating against the Indians—in the allocation of resources which are in the gift of the state. Also in both countries, democratic elections have resulted in regime changes after three decades of near one-party rule. The issue of employment in the public service has become critical as the two groups battle for scarce resources, and the public service is described as a ‘theatre of inter-ethnic drama’. The article takes the view that managing ethnic and cultural diversity is tantamount to managing unproductive tensions that threaten to undermine confidence and morale among public officials. This impacts negatively on their levels of job satisfaction, the quality of the work environment and, ultimately, on performance and output. It breeds suspicion among co-workers and has the potential to degenerate into ethnic strife that can cripple the public sector and affect the overall goal of national development. The article examines existing legal/constitutional and institutional provisions for conflict management and resolution, but ultimately suggests the need for well-conceived confidence-building measures such as public scrutiny of the personnel function and the reintroduction of ethnicity as a category on official government personnel records. The main theoretical conclusion is that while equality of opportunity must be guaranteed, the notion of a representative bureaucracy has many practical limitations that make it unworkable in Trinidad and Guyana. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Ethnic politics and public sector management in Trinidad and Guyana

Representativeness and diversity in the composition of public institutions is an explicit goal of Public sector reform programmes. But the principle of diversity poses many challenges for the practice of human resource management, not least of which is maintaining confidence in the system and, by extension, morale among public officers. High morale and motivation contribute to performance and output, which are vital If the public sector Is to be results-oriented. Thls article takes the view that managing diversity is the equivalent of managing unproductive tensions that threaten to diminish performance and output. Trinidad and Tobago is a small multiethnic state In which ‘the public sector has become the theatre of inter-ethnic drama, as the two main groups compete for scarce resources and employment opportunities. The article considers the human resource management function within the Trinidad and Tobago public service and specifically the role of the pubtic service commission, and examines the key areas...

Deryck R. Brown

Papers

Evaluating institutional sustainability in development programmes: beyond dollars and cents

Ethnic politics and public sector management in Trinidad and Guyana

Managing Diversity In the Trinidad and Tobago Public Service