Public Policy and Administration 

About: Public Policy and Administration is an academic journal published by SAGE Publishing. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Government & Public sector. It has an ISSN identifier of 0952-0767. Over the lifetime, 1334 publications have been published receiving 16760 citations. The journal is also known as: Viešoji politika ir administravimas..

Contemporary public management: a new global paradigm?:

Abstract: This paper takes another look at the much-canvassed idea of a 'new global paradigm' emerging in contemporary public management. It argues that, linguistic usage apart, the 'globality' and monoparadigmatic character of contemporary public management change seems to be exaggerated. Three interrelated objections are advanced against the claim of an emerging new global paradigm. First, it is argued that contemporary reform ideas, particularly those advanced by Osborne and Gaebler, are culturally plural rather than homogenous. Second, it is argued that there are substantial biases towards exaggerating international similarity in public management reforms, but that the similarity weakens when we go beyond semantic packaging to examine the specific content of reform initiatives. Third, it is claimed that there are also built- in biases for overstressing the continuity of contemporary public management reforms, but that in fact there are major obstacles to the emergence of a stable new paradigm in public manageme...

What's in a Name? Making Sense of Social Enterprise Discourses

Abstract: Much attention has been paid to the contested concept of “social enterprise”. A wide variety of organisational types have had the label attributed to them or have tried to claim the label for themselves. Existing academic literature provides a bewildering array of definitions and explanations for the emergence of social enterprise. This conceptual confusion is because social enterprise is a fluid and contested concept constructed by different actors promoting different discourses connected to different organisational forms and drawing upon different academic theories. This article makes sense of these different social enterprise forms, academic explanations and policy and practitioner discourses. Using the example of England, where social enterprise has been heavily promoted and supported as a site for policy intervention, an analysis of how the meanings of social enterprise have evolved and expanded over time is provided. This demonstrates that the language of social enterprise was initially developed as...

From Muddling Through to Muddling Up - Evidence Based Policy Making and the Modernisation of British Government:

Abstract: This article critically reviews the approach to evidence based policy-making (EBPM) advanced in the Labour government's modernisation agenda The article contends that EBPM must be understood as a

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

Abstract: 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...