Public Organization Review 

About: Public Organization Review is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Public finance & Public sector. It has an ISSN identifier of 1566-7170. Over the lifetime, 806 publications have been published receiving 11289 citations.

The Rhetoric and Reality of Public-Private Partnerships

Abstract: “Public-private partnership” (or “PPP”) is now a very-fashionable concept in discourse about public sector management. For many, following a British lead, it focuses on attracting private financing for public projects. However there are several other forms of public-private mix that are also often described as partnerships, and some of them are not nearly so new. This article notes that several nodes of interest have developed to explore these mixes/partnerships, and raises some questions about them. We should consider whether all such mixes can properly be described as partnerships. Also we need to know more about their long history, to investigate the possibility of developing a classificatory system to help us better understand the various forms, and to consider what conditions are necessary for successful mixing or partnering, in particular for protecting the public interest at a time when market forces exercise great power.

Complexity and Hybrid Public Administration—Theoretical and Empirical Challenges

Abstract: This article provides a greater understanding of hybrid public administra- tion. Different generations of public sector reforms have accentuated hybrid and complex features of public organizations, resulting in multiple-layer structural and cultural features. The article covers the following research questions: 1) how can we interpret the increasing tendency towards hybrid administration in terms of a transformative approach; 2) how is hybrid administration developing out of attempts to balance NPM and post-NPM?; and 3) how can we understand the major mechanisms producing hybridity in a modern reform? The case we focus on is the reform of the Norwegian welfare administration.

Political Modernisation and Policy Arrangements: A Framework for Understanding Environmental Policy Change

Abstract: Since its emergence in the early seventies, the environmental policy domain has substantially changed in terms of its content, organisation and instrumentation. Hitherto these changes have been studied primarily as strategic responses of the actors involved. This article aims to conceive recent changes in environmental policies in terms of political modernisation on the one hand, and in terms of the renewal of policy arrangements on the other. Political modernisation refers to structural processes of changing interrelations between state, market and civil society, and to new conceptions and practices of governance. Policy arrangements refer to the substance and the organisation of policy domains in terms of policy discourses, coalitions, rules of the game and resources. This analytical framework aims to do justice to policy dynamics caused by both strategic and structural factors. It therefore provides new perspectives on the understanding of recent changes in environmental policy and also proves to be helpful in improving those policies.

Accountability in the Shadow of Hierarchy: The Horizontal Accountability of Agencies

Abstract: In the Netherlands, new accountability arrangements are created as remedies for the accountability deficit of agencies. These arrangements are of a ‘horizontal’ nature, as the agencies account for their behaviour towards accountees that are not their hierarchical superiors: clients, stakeholders or peers. This paper provides an inventory and qualitative assessment of horizontal accountability arrangements. It is argued that they have added value because they stimulate learning. However, horizontal accountability is not a substitute for hierarchical accountability. Horizontal accountability arrangements operate ‘in the shadow of hierarchy’: they gain significance through complex interactions with traditional forms of accountability.

The Challenge of Coordination in Central Government Organizations: The Norwegian Case

Abstract: This paper addresses coordination problems in central government by focusing on the Norwegian case. The main research questions are: What are the experiences of civil servants concerning horizontal and vertical coordination, and internal and external coordination? What is the relative importance of structural, demographic and cultural variables for explaining variations in civil servants’ perception of coordination? The data base is a questionnaire to civil servants in ministries and central agencies in 2006. The main findings are that there are more problems with horizontal coordination than with vertical coordination; that coordination problems are bigger in central agencies than in ministries; and that a low level of mutual trust tends to aggravate coordination problems.