Showing papers in "Policy and Politics in 2005"

Perceptions of politics and perceived performance in public and private organisations: a test of one model across two sectors

Abstract: English This article suggests a theoretical model and empirical examination of the relationship between organisational politics and perceived employees’ performance across two separate settings: the private sector and the public sector. 700 employees of private sector and public sector organisations provided data on perceptions of organisational politics, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, job distress and burnout, as well as self-reported turnover intentions, negligent behaviour and absenteeism. Our findings indicate that politics perceptions differ substantially across sectors and prove higher in the public than in the private sector. The theoretical model was tested using an SEM technique and was found valid in both sectors. However, when closely analysed, the same model still fits private sector organisations better than public sector ones.

Community governance and democracy

Abstract: This article reviews key issues of governance and democracy and asks what current theory and evidence have to teach us about how local governance should be changed in order to make it more conducive to human emancipation. A distinction is drawn between governance and metagovernance, and the potential is assessed for the democratisation of both at community level. Particular attention is paid to the 'persistence of oligarchy' and its manifestations at local level. The article concludes with suggestions on how to build countervailing power in order to achieve the democratisation that is deemed to be desirable.

Welfare state effects on social capital and informal solidarity in the European Union : evidence from the 1999/2000 European Values Study

Abstract: English This article tests whether state-organised solidarity substitutes social capital and informal solidarity, based on recent data from the European Values Study. At country level, we find that welfare spending has a reinforcing effect on social capital and a negative substitution effect on informal solidarity. At the individual level, there is also evidence for a substitution effect, since informal solidarity is lower among people who live in countries that spend more on social protection. In addition, there is evidence of a ‘national burden’ effect, since informal solidarity is lower among people who live in countries with an older population, with higher unemployment, and with a higher percentage of immigrants.

Beyond the new public management? Public services and the social investment state

Abstract: Recent years have seen the proliferation of political discourses around the Third Way, progressive governance, social investment and social inclusion. This article explores the implications for public management, drawing on documentary and interview data on the changing fortunes of the public library service, a service seemingly well positioned to take full advantage of these new policy discourses. The article concludes by tracing some of the key contradictions inherent in the idea of the social investment state, and the challenges these produce for public managers.

Religion and urban regeneration: a place for faith?

Abstract: The British government has identified 'faith communities' as a neglected resource in urban regeneration. This article first explores the context of official support for faith involvement in urban and neighbourhood policy and identifies the assumptions underlying key policy documents. These assumptions are then critically explored by reference to the links commonly drawn between religion and 'community', 'neighbourhood' and 'social cohesion'. Attempts to enlist faith groups within this essentially consensual agenda often fail to recognise both the potential divisiveness of religion and also the more positive and radical lessons that often stem from the action, experience and critical analysis of religious organisations and their members.

Paradox of choice in a mandatory pension savings system: challenges for Australian retirement income policy

Abstract: As the Australian pension system has become increasingly privatized and less regulated, decisions about the quantum and nature of pension investments have progressively shifted to pension fund members. This choice environment provides members with the ability to control their own pensions, but it also creates challenges for ensuring pension assets are managed in way that will maximize returns and, ultimately, retirement benefits. Government initiatives to address these challenges have principally focussed on disclosure and education and not on the more pervasive behavioural constraints that limit the effectiveness of the existing policy. We advocate policy solutions consistent with libertarian paternalism where the government provides a competitive choice environment, but actively intervenes to set suitable pension savings and investment defaults.

The representation of women in local politics

Abstract: The under-representation of women in local politics has been debated for many years. While there is evidence to suggest that more women are now being elected to local authorities, they continue to face barriers to their entry and to their subsequent progression. Based on 1,014 responses to a national survey of women councillors, this article presents evidence on women's representation and explores the tensions they face in reconciling their public and private worlds. The article further examines women councillors' own perceptions and attitudes to achieving higher office and considers their prospects under the new council constitutions.

The Fourth Attempt to Construct a Politics of Welfare Obligations

Abstract: Since the 1980s there have been three main attempts to ground citizenship upon the principles of duty, obligation and responsibility: conservative, communitarian and Third Way. Each of these are reviewed below. The principal task of this article, though, is to examine the emergence of a fourth attempt which, by relating duty to equality through the principle of reciprocity, represents a synthesis of traditional social democracy with the new politics of obligation. Our focus will be upon The Civic Minimum by Stuart White since this is arguably the most cogent expression of duty-based egalitarianism to have emerged in recent years. Key words: citizenship, equality, reciprocity, Basic Income

An 'experiment' in Indigenous social policy: the rise and fall of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)

Abstract: The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) was established in 1990 as part of the Australian government's attempts to address the extensive disadvantages faced by Indigenous Australians. ATSIC was described as a "path-breaking experiment" in indigenous affairs, combining administrative and representative functions in one statutory body. By 2004, however, ATSIC was all but dead. This article describes the short life history of ATSIC and examines the major conflicts, tensions and criticisms that have led to its demise.

Building regional governance in England: The view from Whitehall

Abstract: Constitutional arrangements in parts of the UK have been transformed by political devolution. In the English regions the Government has pursued a more cautious approach based upon reinforcing the regional tier through administrative decentralisation. Nonetheless, such reforms represent a significant strengthening of the machinery of regional governance and open up opportunities for the recalibration of intra-state relations. Drawing on the views of Whitehall civil servants, this article explores how central-regional relations are being adapted and how government is building a regional perspective into its activities. We conclude that the implications of increased regionalisation for government have not been fully grasped and that greater attention needs to be given to regional priorities in the development of national policies and the adoption of a more co-ordinated approach to regional strategy making and implementation.

Social services policy and delivery in Australia: centre–periphery mixes

Abstract: The development of social services policy and the delivery of those attendant services have come to occupy a core role for modern governments. The modes of policy development and service delivery and their coordination have shifted between centralised models operated by decision-making elites and a peripheral model in which government divests some level of authority and responsibility for the development and implementation of social services policy to community based actors and organisations. Changing policy stances bring these models and their associated coordination principles into dominance at different points in history and importantly, problematise social services policy making and delivery through the continued existence of residual aspects of these multiple approaches. The Howard Government’s current social policy draws on aspects of the periphery modes of social organisation, policy development and service delivery. However the continued reliance on central regulating and co-ordinating processes has led to a blurring of the boundaries of responsibility for policy formulation and co-ordinated execution and delivery of services in this critical area. It is argued that irrespective of the dominant domain, government, by virtue of its central role to ensure social stability, should retain some responsibility for policy development and oversight through more vertical, centralised coordination modes but in a way that combines with horizontal, decentralised relational approaches to ensure participation and engagement.

Human rights: above politics or a creature of politics ?

Abstract: For the last forty years or more, this country has appeared to be in the grip of one kind of national panic or another. In the 1960s and 1970s it was a moral panic that took hold of 'middle England'. Self-styled hippies and lefties were charged by an older generation with threatening the fabric of society. In the 1980s it was threats to national security that appeared to strike fear in the heart of the nation, from IRA terrorists to the spectre of a Soviet nuclear attack. As the 1990s progressed we were back to a moral panic again. The view that contemporary society was characterised by 'too many rights and not enough responsibilities' was shared by politicians, priests and political commentators alike.

Stealing the skills agenda? Devolution, business and post-16 education and training in Wales

Abstract: This article considers the role of business interests within the devolved political and governmental arrangements introduced by New Labour. We focus on the involvement of business in shaping post-16 education and training policy in Wales. Continuities apparent in the process of devolution across its administrative and political forms have produced a distinctive Welsh political economy involving public sector-dominated policy agendas periodically punctured by specific business interests. Devolution appears to have underlined such continuities. An increased imperviousness of public sector-dominated post-16 education and training strategy-making to business interests coexists with the ability of specific business interests to distort such strategies at an operational level. Spanish En este articulo se considera el papel de los intereses de los negocios dentro de la politica descentralizada y acuerdos gubernamentales introducidos por el Nuevo Partido Laborista. Nos enfocamos en la implicacion de los negocios en la formacion de la educacion despues de los 16 anos de edad y en la politica de ensenanza en Gales. Las aparentes continuidades en el proceso de devolucion a traves de sus formas administrativas y politicas han producido una distintiva economia politica galesa implicando agendas politicas publicas en el sector dominado que estan periodicamente rotas por los especificos intereses de negocios. La devolucion parece haber subrayado tales continuidades. Una aumentada impermeabilidad del sector publico domino la educacion despues de los 16 anos de edad y la elaboracion estrategica de ensenanza para que el interes de negocios coexistan con la habilidad de los intereses especificos de negocios para distorsionar tales estrategias a un nivel operacional. French Cet article etudie le role que jouent les interets des milieux economiques dans les dispositions de regionalisation en politique gouvernementale prises par New Labour. Nous etudions tout particulierement le role que jouent les affaires dans la creation de l'enseignement apres 16 ans et la politique de formation au Pays de Galles. Les continuites qui sont apparentes dans le processus de regionalisation sous toutes ses formes administratives et politiques ont donne le jour a une economie politique galloise tres distincte, impliquant des programmes de politique domines par le secteur public perces periodiquement sabotes par des interets des milieux economiques particuliers. La regionalisation semble avoir mis ces continuites en evidence. Un enseignement apres 16 ans et une elaboration de strategies dominees par le secteur public de plus en plus indifferents aux interets des milieux economiques coexiste avec la faculte qu'ont certains interets des milieux economiques de deformer ces strategies a un niveau operationnel.

Environmental sustainability and management reform in local government: an empirical analysis

Abstract: A new stage of environmental policy making in local government has emerged as managerial reforms to improve the performance of local government in England seek to secure sustainability alongside more traditional measures such as economy, efficiency and effectiveness. In this article we present the first empirical test of the relationship between environmental sustainability and managerial reform, using the example of Best Value. Data are drawn from a large survey of 706 officers in 102 English local authorities. Statistical results suggest that sustainability, inspired by managerial reform, is assisted by favourable environmental attitudes and the presence of strong corporate values but is frustrated by poor integration and departmental cultures towards sustainability. An agenda of further research is offered in conclusion.