Showing papers on "Government published in 1971"

Bureaucracy and representative government

Abstract: This is the first book to develop a formal theory of supply by bureaus. Niskanen develops an original and comprehensive theory of the behavior of bureaus with the institutions of representative government. He challenges the traditional view that monopoly bureaus are the best way to organize the public sector, and he suggests ways to use competitive bureaus and private firms to perform operations such as delivering mail, fighting wars, or running schools more efficiently than the present government agencies. The theory concludes that most bureaus are too large, grow too fast, use too much capital, and exploit their sponsor. His theory explains the relation of the output and budget of a bureau to demand and cost decisions. It compares bureaus with other forms of organization facing like conditions and delineates the production and investment behavior of a bureau, the behavior of nonprofit firms with no sponsor, the behavior of mixed bureaus with financing from a sponsor and from the sale of services, the effects of competition between a bureau and a competitive industry. The book also develops a simple theory of the market for public services financed through a representative government; the final section suggests a set of changes to improve the performance of our bureaucratic and political institutions, based both on theory and Niskanen's professional experience. It is essential reading for professionals and students in the social sciences and could prove instrumental in reforming some of our government institutions.

Systematic thinking for social action

Abstract: How can we identify who benefits from government programs aimed at solving our social problem and who pays for them? With so many problems, how can we allocate scarce funds to promote the maximum well-being of our citizens?In this book, originally presented as the third series of H. Rowan Gaither Lectures in Systems Science at the University of California (Berkeley). Alice M. Rivlin examines the contributions that systematic analysis has made to decisionmaking in the government's "social action" programseducation, health, manpower training, and income maintenance. Drawing on her own experience in government, Mrs. Rivlin indicates where the analysts have been helpful in finding solutions and wherebecause of inadequate data or methodsthey have been no help at all.Mrs. Rivlin concludes by urging the widespread implementation of social experimentation and acceptability by the federal government. The first in such a way as to permit valid conclusions about their effectiveness; the second would encourage the adoption of better ways of delivering services by making those who administer programs responsive to their clients. Underlying both is the requirement from comprehensive, reliable performance measures."

The government and politics of Ireland

Abstract: List of tables and figures. 1. Basic influences. 2. The changing face (and mind?) of Ireland. 3. The framework of limited government. 4. Political communications and the mass media. 5. Patterns of participation and representation. 6. Political parties. 7. Pressure groups. 8. Elections. 9. The policy makers. 10. The government and the Dail. 11. The Oireachtas. 12. The pattern of public administration. 13. The control of administration and the civil service. 14. State-sponsored. 15. Local government. 16. Controlling the administration. 17. The European Community dimension in Irish Government. Appendices. 1. How the Dail is Elected. 2. State-Sponsored Bodies in 1991. 3. The Main Functions of Local Authorities. Further reading. Index.

Brain Drain from Developing Countries

Abstract: If the loss of scientific and technical manpower from the developing countries is to be stemmed, firm measures must be taken soon. These suggestions for tackling the problem are a modified version of a paper read at the Pugwash conference on science and world affairs in October 1969. The views expressed here are, of course, those of Dr Parthasarathi and do not reflect the views of the Government of India.

Title I of ESEA: The Politics of Implementing Federal Education Reform

Abstract: Most of the literature on Title I of ESEA focuses either on activities at the federal level—the passage and early administration of the law—or at the local level—the quality of programs or alleged abuses in using Title I funds. Little attention has been paid to the intergovernmental problems of implementing education reform in a federal system. In this article, the author examines the interaction between the different levels of government concerning Title I, focusing mainly on the program's management and on specific federal efforts to issue strong guidelines. The discussion reveals the political and bureaucratic obstacles which constrain federal efforts to redirect local priorities and explores the notion of countervailing local power as a way for the poor to gain greater leverage in the program's operation.

Buddhism and National Integration in Thailand

Abstract: Buddhism in Thailand has been both subjected to integrative policies advanced by the Thai government and manipulated as an instrument for promoting national integration. As a result of reforms instituted at the end of the nineteenth century, several different traditions of Therevada Buddhism were united into a national religious system. In recent years, the Thai government has attempted to involve the Buddhist Sangha in efforts to promote economic development among the Thai peasantry and assimilation of tribal peoples into Thai society. While the policies designed to integrate Buddhism within Thailand were successful, the efforts to use Thai Buddhism as instrument of national policy could prove deleterious rather than advantageous to the attainment of national goals.

The History of Education in Ghana: From the Earliest Times to the Declaration of Independance

Abstract: Early educational effort 1600-1800 educational expansion 1800-1850 the role of administrators, chiefs and the missions first attempts at agricultural and industrial training girls' education and teacher training before 1850 some chief factors in educational expansion 1850-1900 government official policy in educational expansion 1850-1900 agricultural, industrial and vernacular training 1850-1900 girls education and teacher training 1850-1900 higher education notes on 20th century educational developments conclusion appendices.

The expulsion of West African aliens

Abstract: In many West African countries there are large numbers of foreigners who have settled down to live and work or who come periodically to help harvest the crops. These aliens may be seen, from one point of view, as a useful and willing labour force, and a politically passive group requiring little in the way of services, or, from another viewpoint, as an insupportable drain on an economy which is not able to supply jobs for local people, and a source of political conflict because they have no allegiance to the ruling government. The growth in the economic power of Lebanese businessmen and local reactions to this competition have been ably discussed;1 this article will be concerned with African aliens, who are present in far greater numbers than the Lebanese and whose position has become increasingly insecure in recent years.

Efficient Distribution of Resources Through Three Levels of Government

Abstract: This paper presents a model for determining how a central government can most efficiently allocate resources among other levels of government. The model explicitly includes the fact that lower levels of government can make independent decisions once they have been given resources by the central government. A key feature of the model is the mathematical formulation of the central government's objective of distributing resources efficiently, while at the same time being as fair as possible to all those receiving allocations. An algorithm for solving the model is presented along with a numerical example.

Grants-in-Aid: The Analytics of Design and Response.

Abstract: Theoretical attention is given to two aspects of intergovernmental aid programs. The relative responses of a recipient government are compared under various function specifications, matching requir...

Social indicators: health

Abstract: This article was one of several presented at an international conference on social indicators held at Ditchley Park in April 1971. The conference was sponsored by the Social Science Research Council and attended by representatives from USA, Canada, France and United Kingdom, including representation from the Central Statistical Office. Current thinking on social indicators is proceeding in many and various directions. It could not yet be claimed that there is any consensus on the most desirable line of development even within particular social policy areas. This is especially true of the difficult field of health with which this article deals. Nevertheless it is part of the editorial policy of Social Trends to keep in touch with developments in this important field. The article is therefore published not as representing a line of thought which has any especial status with public health authorities, government, or the medical profession but simply as an interesting example of the kind of substantive research which is going on in this field.

Crop loss assessment methods.

Abstract: In October 1967 the director general of FAO convened a symposium on crop losses to emphasize the need for the development and use of experimental methods to estimate crop losses quantitatively. This symposium, held in Rome, was attended by government representatives and individuals from 36 countries. At the closing session one of the recommendations to FAO was to prepare a manual of methods for estimating crop losses.

The rubber trade of the Gold Coast and Asante in the nineteenth century: African innovation and market responsiveness

Abstract: The export trade in wild rubber occupies an important place in the nineteenth-century economic history of the Gold Coast and Asante, and the impetus which it gave to the future economic development of the country was greater than is commonly recognized. The timely development of this new product by African entrepreneurs and up-country producers in the 1880s enabled the colony to diversify its export bill at a time when flagging prices for palm products and dwindling supplies of ivory, monkey skins, and surface gold threatened economic stagnation. Between 1884 and 1898 Gold Coast rubber exports registered a twenty-five fold increase in volume, thereby placing the country among the top five rubber producers of the world. An analysis of the Gold Coast rubber trade contributes to the demolition of certain myths concerning the economically passive role of West Africans in the development of their own hinterlands. European agencies—whether mercantile or governmental—contributed only indirectly to the development of the local rubber trade. No doubt the general protection and opportunity for exercise of individual initiative which the British colonial government provided enabled the Gold Coast to escape the excesses of forced labour and expropriation which marred European concessionaire rubber operations in other parts of Africa. But it was chiefly the myriads of African merchants, middlemen and producers who supplied the driving force of the local trade during the nineteenth century. The rubber trade accelerated the pace of economic change in Asante and other interior states where the pull exerted by the sea-borne export sector previously had been minimal. It is clear that the number of people involved in trading generally—whether as middlemen or producers—increased greatly as a result of the lucrative returns to be gained from rubber tapping. With rubber trade expansion came a growing demand by producers for a wider range of European merchandise imports, plus the acceptance of a uniform metallic currency which facilitated market transactions throughout the interior. Finally, the profits saved from rubber tapping became an important source for indigenous capital investment in cocoa-farming, particularly in Asante.

Creativity: A Cross-Historical Pilot Survey

Abstract: This is a study of the causes of creative florescences in particular periods of time in certain countries. Five hypotheses were tested which have been proposed to explain such florescences. No support was found for four of these supposed causes: wealth, geographical expansion, democratic government and external challenge. Some support however was found for the fifth hypothesis: the more politically fragmented a civilization at a given time, the higher its creativity level.

The Problem of “Nationalism” and “Imperialism” in British Settlement Colonies

Abstract: Nation-making, said Canadian journalist Sir John Willison, was one of Canada's infant industries. Canada had first become a nation in 1867, and, according to party literature, with every subsequent change of government “we have been made a nation over again.” Sir John was not exaggerating the number of times that writers have made Canada a nation, and, since historians have often been employed in the same nation-making industry, this paper will concern itself with the problem of the historian in dealing with the conceptions of “nationalism” and “imperialism” in Canada and other colonies of British settlement.The study of nationalism in British settlement colonies is hampered by difficulties of terminology, conceptualization, and ideological inflection. Looseness of word-usage, such as using “nation” for both state or country and as a word to describe a group of people with some common features, constitutes a major difficulty, especially when historians accept the looseness uncritically and without analysis. Sometimes “national” is used as a euphemism for the policy of protection – Sir John A. Macdonald's Canadian National Policy was originally little more than that. The same term was used by Queensland's Premier McIllwraith in 1882, and there “national” could only have meant the economic development of the Queensland “nation.” “National” sometimes simply means a geographic whole or a common, central institution – that is, a “national” government can merely mean one government governing four provinces, or six states. The word can even, as in “national schools,” mean non-denominational.

The Hyderabad Political System and its Participants

Abstract: Differing both in structure and operation from its parent Mughal model, the political system which came to be known as Hyderabad State developed in the Deccan in the second half of the eighteenth century. The major structural difference lay in the great power of two hereditary daftardars, the keepers of the central revenue records—these men could usurp the Diwan's (Chief Minister's) traditional control of government finances. Without overemphasizing contrasts with the Mughal model, for few behavioral studies have been made of Mughal administration, other apparent differences lay in Hyderabad's complete reliance on private contractors for revenue collection, the customary treatment of jagirs (land grants) as inheritable, and clear functional distinctions within the mansabdari system. Loosely structured patron-client relationships and the use of vakils or intermediaries characterized the operation of the system. The participants—nobles, local rulers, military men, bankers, record-keepers—were of diverse origins. The recruitment and composition of the Hyderabad nobility reflected the flexibility of the political system, as illustrated by an examination of the career patterns of the acknowledged “ten leading families” of the Hyderabad nobility.

Efficiency, Distribution, and the Role of Government in a Market Economy

Abstract: To evaluate government programs, it is necessary to say what individuals are "entitled" to in regard to wealth distribution. This paper explores the normative implications for government action of the presumption that factors are"entitled" to their marginal product. The conclusions are that imperfections in knowledge, mobility, and competition should be removed by court action as a matter of distributive justice, and that collective goods, including income redistribution, should be paid for by those who demand the goods. Compensation is appropriate when government changes the rules it has itself imposed or when it recognizes new property rights where they did not formerly exist.

Hobbes and the Science of Indirect Government

Abstract: The article defines indirect government as self-government through intermediaries authorized by the people, as opposed to the direct rule of the people. It requires that the people abstain from government after authorizing it, and hence that political debate center on whether or how the government is representative, not on what it should do. Almost all modern government is indirect and based on the indirect question of representation. Hobbes, though not the founder of indirect government, was the founder of the science by which men could be induced to consent to be governed not in accordance with their opinions of good and bad but on the basis of their passions, particularly fear. To achieve a form of consent that was voluntary and yet not based on opinion, he was forced to understand consent almost as resigning to the inevitable, yet his purpose in attempting to expel opinions from politics was to clear away divisions of opinion, especially religious opinion, and thus remove the obstacle to progress in human power. Hobbes' doctrine and modern representative government must both be understood from the historical standpoint of Hobbes' hostility to Christianity.