Showing papers on "Government published in 2004"

Citizen Participation in Decision Making: Is It Worth the effort?

Abstract: It is widely argued that increased community participation in government decision making produces many important benefits. Dissent is rare: It is difficult to envision anything but positive outcomes from citizens joining the policy process, collaborating with others and reaching consensus to bring about positive social and environmental change. This article, motivated by contextual problems encountered in a participatory watershed management initiative, reviews the citizen-participation literature and analyzes key considerations in determining whether community participation is an effective policy-making tool. We list conditions under which community participation may be costly and ineffective and when it can thrive and produce the greatest gains in effective citizen governance. From the detritus of an unsuccessful citizen-participation effort, we arrive at a more informed approach to guide policy makers in choosing a decision-making process that is appropriate for a community's particular needs.

E‐Government and the Transformation of Service Delivery and Citizen Attitudes

Abstract: The impact of new technology on public-sector service delivery and citizens' attitudes about government has long been debated by political observers. This article assesses the consequences ofe-government for service delivery, democratic responsiveness, and public attitudes over the last three years. Research examines the content of e-government to investigate whether it is taking advantage of the interactive features of the World Wide Web to improve service delivery, democratic responsiveness, and public outreach. In addition, a national public opinion survey examines the ability of e-government to influence citizens' views about government and their confidence in the effectiveness of service delivery. Using both Web site content as well as public assessments, I argue that, in some respects, the e-government revolution has fallen short of its potential to transform service delivery and public trust in government. It does, however, have the possibility of enhancing democratic responsiveness and boosting beliefs that government is effective.

Good Enough Governance: Poverty Reduction and Reform in Developing Countries

Abstract: The good governance agenda is unrealistically long and growing longer over time. Among the multitude of governance reforms that “must be done” to encourage development and reduce poverty, there is little guidance about what's essential and what's not, what should come first and what should follow, what can be achieved in the short term and what can only be achieved over the longer term, what is feasible and what is not. If more attention is given to sorting out these questions, “good enough governance” may become a more realistic goal for many countries faced with the goal of reducing poverty. Working toward good enough governance means accepting a more nuanced understanding of the evolution of institutions and government capabilities; being explicit about trade-offs and priorities in a world in which all good things cannot be pursued at once; learning about what's working rather than focusing solely on governance gaps; taking the role of government in poverty alleviation seriously; and grounding action in the contextual realities of each country.

Linking Citizen Satisfaction with E-Government and Trust in Government

Abstract: This article asks how Internet use, citizen satisfaction with e-government, and citizen trust in government are interrelated. We first review the literature on trust and explore how radical information technologies may work to alter the production or maintenance of trust. We then develop hypotheses about how citizens’ experience with e-government, satisfaction with e-government and government Web sites, and trust in government are interrelated. Moreover, the model for e-government and Web site satisfaction incorporates citizen perspectives on electronic transaction, transparency, and interactivity. Using data obtained from the Council on Excellence in Government, we then develop and test a twostage multiple-equation model that simultaneously predicts experience, satisfaction, and trust. Findings indicate that government Web site use is positively associated with e-government satisfaction and Web site satisfaction and that e-government satisfaction is positively associated with trust in government. We also find that while citizens are generally satisfied with the electronic provision of information (transparency), there is some dissatisfaction with the transaction and interactivity of Web sites. We conclude that electronic government strategies—transaction, transparency, and interactivity—are important factors that directly affect e-government satisfaction and indirectly affect trust. Individuals who use government Web sites are not only critical consumers but also demanding citizens.

Foreign Aid, Institutions, and Governance in Sub‐Saharan Africa*

Abstract: Introduction More than a decade ago, the World Bank argued that “underlying the litany of Africa’s development problems is a crisis of governance.” Poor quality institutions, weak rule of law, an absence of accountability, tight controls over information, and high levels of corruption still characterize many African states today. Aid levels have been reduced in many parts of Africa during the past decade. Yet in many of the countries with poor governance records, aid continues to contribute a very high percentage of government budgets. This article explores the institutional impact of these high levels of aid and the way that large amounts of aid are delivered. There are many reasons why governance is poor in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Colonialism did little to develop strong, indigenously rooted institutions that could tackle the development demands of modern states. Economic crisis and unsustainable debt, civil wars, and political instability have all taken their toll over the past 2 decades and more. It is difficult to separate the impact of these problems from the possible impact of foreign aid, which is often high in countries that suffer from precisely these problems. Theory provides conflicting guidance here. On the one hand, aid can release governments from binding revenue constraints, enabling them to strengthen domestic institutions and pay higher salaries to civil servants. Aid can provide training and technical assistance to build legal systems and accounting offices. In many countries, aid personnel (sometimes expatriate) manage important government programs, and the infusion of resources and technical assistance can give an important boost to the efficiency and effectiveness of governance, if only in a partial sense. Yet despite these likely benefits, it is also possible that, continued over

Linking physicians' pay to the quality of care--a major experiment in the United kingdom.

Abstract: In this Health Policy Report, the author describes a major pay-for-performance program that is being implemented in the United Kingdom. Additional government payments to family practitioners will be based on the quality of care they deliver. Family practitioners can earn up to 1050 quality bonus points (expected to be worth more than $75,000 in gross income) for performing well on a complex set of indicators that measure the quality of clinical care, organization of the practice, and experience of the patients.

A Challenge to Conservationists

Abstract: As corporate and government money flow into the three big international organizations that dominate the world's con- servation agenda, their programs have been marked by grow- ing conflicts of interest—and by a disturbing neglect of the indigenous peoples whose land they are in business to protect.

Industrial Policy for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract: Unlike what is commonly believed, the last two decades have not witnessed the twilight of industrial policy. Instead, incentives and subsidies have been refocused on exports and direct foreign investment, in the belief that these activities are the source of significant positive spillovers. The challenge in most developing countries is not to rediscover industrial policy, but to redeploy it in a more effective manner. This paper lays out an institutional framework for accomplishing this objective. A central argument is that the task of industrial policy is as much about eliciting information from the private sector on significant externalities and their remedies as it is about implementing appropriate policies. The right model for industrial policy is not that of an autonomous government applying Pigovian taxes or subsidies, but of strategic collaboration between the private sector and the government with the aim of uncovering where the most significant obstacles to restructuring lie and what type of interventions are most likely to remove them.

Implementing Performance Measurement Innovations: Evidence From Government

Abstract: Using data from a government-wide survey administered by the US General Accounting Office, we examine some of the factors influencing the development, use, and perceived benefits of results-oriented performance measures in government activities. We find that organizational factors such as top management commitment to the use of performance information, decision-making authority, and training in performance measurement techniques have a significant positive influence on measurement system development and use. We also find that technical issues, such as information system problems and difficulties selecting and interpreting appropriate performance metrics in hard-to-measure activities, play an important role in system implementation and use. The extent of performance measurement and accountability are positively associated with greater use of performance information for various purposes. However, we find relatively little evidence that the perceived benefits from recent mandated performance measurement initiatives in the US government increase with greater measurement and accountability. Finally, we provide exploratory evidence that some of the technical and organizational factors interact to influence measurement system implementation and outcomes, often in a complex manner.

Risk, Uncertainty and Government

Abstract: Risk, Uncertainty and Government. From Independence to Social Security. Enterprising Liberalism. Uncertainty, Liberalism and Contract. Risky Contracts: Gambling, Speculation and Insurance. Insurance, Actuarialism and Thrift. Risk, Crime Control and Criminal Justice. Risking Drug Use. Risk, Uncertainty and Freedom

The Corporate Governance of Banks - a concise discussion of concepts and evidence

Abstract: The author examines the corporate governance of banks. When banks efficiently mobilize and allocate funds, this lowers the cost of capital to firms, boosts capital formation, and stimulates productivity growth. So, weak governance of banks reverberates throughout the economy with negative ramifications for economic development. After reviewing the major governance concepts for corporations in general, the author discusses two special attributes of banks that make them special in practice: greater opaqueness than other industries and greater government regulation. These attributes weaken many traditional governance mechanisms. Next, he reviews emerging evidence on which government policies enhance the governance of banks and draws tentative policy lessons. In sum, existing work suggests that it is important to strengthen the ability and incentives of private investors to exert governance over banks rather than to rely excessively on government regulators. These conclusions, however, are particularly tentative because more research is needed on how legal, regulatory, and supervisory policies influence the governance of banks.

Constitutional Design for Divided Societies

Abstract: Over the past half-century, democratic constitutional design has undergone a sea change. After the Second World War, newly independent countries tended simply to copy the basic constitutional rules of their former colonial masters, without seriously considering alternatives. Today, constitution writers choose more deliberately among a wide array of constitutional models, with various advantages and disadvantages. While at first glance this appears to be a beneficial development, it has actually been a mixed blessing: Since they now have to deal with more alternatives than they can readily handle, constitution writers risk making ill-advised decisions. In my opinion, scholarly experts can be more helpful to constitution writers by formulating specific recommendations and guidelines than by overwhelming those who must make the decision with a barrage of possibilities and options. This essay presents a set of such recommendations, focusing in particular on the constitutional needs of countries with deep ethnic and other cleavages. In such deeply divided societies the interests and demands of communal groups can be accommodated only by the establishment of power sharing, and my recommendations will indicate as precisely as possible which particular power-sharing rules and institutions are optimal and why. (Such rules and institutions may be useful in less intense forms in many other societies as well.) Most experts on divided societies and constitutional engineering broadly agree that deep societal divisions pose a grave problem for democracy, and that it is therefore generally more difficult to establish and maintain democratic government in divided than in homogeneous Arend Lijphart is Research Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries (1999) and many other studies of democratic institutions, the governance of deeply divided societies, and electoral systems.

Privatization and Its Reverse: Explaining the Dynamics of the Government Contracting Process

Abstract: Empirical evidence shows local government contracting is a dynamic process that includes movements from public delivery to markets and from market contracts back to in-house delivery.This ‘‘reversecontracting’’reflectsthe complexityofpublicserviceprovisionin aworld where market alternatives are used along with public delivery. We develop a methodology to link responses to national surveys and create a longitudinal data set that captures the dynamics of the contracting process. We present a framework that incorporates principal agent problems, government management, monitoring and citizen concerns, and market structure. Our statistical analysis finds government management, monitoring, and principal agent problems to be most important in explaining both new contracting out and contracting back-in. Professional managers recognize the importance of monitoring and the need for public engagement in the service delivery process. The results support the new public service that argues public managers do more than steer a market process; they balance technical and political concerns to secure public value.

Using public procurement to achieve social outcomes

Abstract: The use of public procurement to achieve social outcomes is widespread, but detailed information about how it operates is often sketchy and difficult to find. This article is essentially a mapping exercise, describing the history and current use of government contracting as a tool of social regulation, what the author calls the issue of ‘linkage’. The article considers the popularity of linkage in the 19 th century in Europe and North America, particularly in dealing with issues of labour standards and unemployment. The use of linkage expanded during the 20 th century, initially to include the provision of employment opportunities to disabled workers. During and after World War II, the use of linkage became particularly important in the United States in addressing racial equality, in the requirements for non-discrimination in contracts, and in affirmative action and set-asides for minority businesses. Subsequently, the role of procurement spread both in its geographical coverage and in the subject areas of social policy that it was used to promote. The article considers examples of the use of procurement to promote equality on the basis of ethnicity and gender drawn from Malaysia, South Africa, Canada, and the European Community. More recently, procurement has been used as an instrument to promote human rights transnationally, also by international organizations such as the International Labour Organisation. The article includes some reflections on the relationship between ‘green’ procurement, ‘social’ procurement, and sustainable development, and recent attempts to develop the concept of ‘sustainable procurement.’

E‐government and developing countries: an overview

Abstract: E‐governance is more than just a government website on the Internet. The strategic objective of e‐governance is to support and simplify governance for all parties; government, citizens and businesses. The use of ICTs can connect all three parties and support processes and activities. In other words, in e‐governance electronic means support and stimulate good governance. Therefore, the objectives of e‐governance are similar to the objectives of good governance. Good governance can be seen as an exercise of economic, political, and administrative authority to better manage affairs of a country at all levels. It is not difficult for people in developed countries to imagine a situation in which all interaction with government can be done through one counter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without waiting in lines. However to achieve this same level of efficiency and flexibility for developing countries is going to be difficult. The experience in developed countries shows that this is possible if governments ar...

Managing ethically with global stakeholders: A present and future challenge

Abstract: The article discusses aspects of managing ethically with global stakeholders. A firm's major stakeholders include consumers, employees, owners, the community government, competitors, and the natural environment. In the context of global ethics the community is the host nation in which the firm is doing business and the government represents all the separate sovereign nations that serve as hosts to investing multinational corporations. In terms of global ethics decision making the focus is on the extent to which the manager uses home-country ethical standards versus host-country ethical standards in shaping practice. The concept of corporate social responsibility appears to provide a framework for global business ethics.

Entrepreneurship, small business and economic growth

Abstract: Looks at the relationship between small business and entrepreneurship and also the differences between the two. Stresses that both are important separately and, in addition, notes where they overlap. Posits that in the early part of the last century small businesses were both vehicles for entrepreneurship and sources of employment and income but, although still important in the post‐war years, large firms made great inroads in the 1960s and 1970s. Concludes that government’s central role in entrepreneurialism for the economy is, by its very nature, enabling. Furthermore, entrepreneurship is acknowledged as a driver for economic growth, competitiveness and job creation.

The Obesity Epidemic

Abstract: T here is a growing public health crisis that is global in scope, and it isn't another emerging infectious disease. It concerns being overweight and the adverse health consequences of obesity, which include diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. To sketch the extent of this problem, we begin with the United States, an appropriate starting point because U.S. dietary styles and food habits have been exported so widely around the world. In 1998, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States found that 97 million U.S. adults (55% of the U.S. population) were considered obese or overweight. The Surgeon General issued a “Call to Action” on the obesity problem, but it drew a lackluster response from the responsible federal agencies, and Americans continued to consume an average of 3800 calories per person per day, or about twice the daily requirement. It is now estimated that over two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight. Last year, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni appointed an agency-wide task force to develop recommendations for coping with the epidemic, and perhaps that gives room for some encouragement. But this is an exploding health issue in Europe as well as the United States. Nor is it limited to the developed world: Mayans in Guatemala, South Africans, aboriginal Australians, and Pacific Islanders also show patterns of emerging obesity. The World Health Organization (WHO) is deeply concerned about the issue, recognizing that nearly 1 billion adults are overweight and at least 300 million are obese. It has developed a plan that nations might use to deal with this health crisis. After more than 2 years of intensive debate among world countries, WHO formally approved a Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health in May 2004 that recommends that people limit their intake of fats, salt, and sugar. This strategy had been heavily criticized by officials of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), despite Secretary Tommy Thompson's high-profile obesity initiative that even included his own weight-loss program! The HHS critique supported an effort by the U.S. delegation to force major revisions in the WHO plan related to advertising and food pricing. An HHS official, who apparently believes that economic incentives don't matter, said that WHO should stick to “sound science.” In this space over a year ago ( Science , 7 Feb. 2003, p. [781][1]), Marion Nestle of New York University was critical of the food industry for its political influence over U.S. food policy and for its aggressive marketing of foods that are high in energy but low in nutritional value. Every once in a while, a representative for that industry says something that is unconsciously revealing. In responding to reporters' queries about the WHO plan, a spokesperson suggested that more attention be given “to the issue of individual responsibility.” That neatly displaced a burden from manufacturers, advertisers, and government, and put it on the sufferer. Well, behavioral modification may be the solution for some, but for others the issue may be biochemical, not behavioral. Work on the genetics of obesity and on the biochemical relations between leptin and other molecules that signal the feeding centers of the brain may bring more help to those who want to lose weight but somehow can't. In the past, the urge for weight loss has led ambitious dieters into medical perils even more serious than staying overweight. Fad diets in the 1970s featuring high-protein liquids derived largely from animal collagen caused deaths from cardiac causes among young women until they were forced off the market. Fortunately, there were, and still are, alternatives; reasonable exercise and thoughtful choices among a balanced variety of foods help. Perhaps the most provocative news from the laboratory is that calorie restriction in some organisms promotes longevity, even if started late in life. The obesity problem demands serious action from governments because it is levying heavy costs on societies everywhere. WHO has clearly raised the bar with its endorsement of a global campaign against obesity. At the political level, the best solution surely is a ministry or department that is responsible for dietary advice, research, and food policy and is dominated by the interests of consumers rather than producers. In the United States, such responsibility is irrationally divided between the Public Health Service and the producer-oriented Department of Agriculture—an arrangement that other governments would be wise not to copy. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.299.5608.781

The case for bureaucracy : a public administration polemic

Abstract: "The Case for Bureaucracy" persuasively argues that American public servants and administrative institutions are among the best in the world. Contrary to popular stereotypes, they are neither sources of great waste nor a threat to liberty, but social assets of critical value to a functioning democracy. In presenting his case, Goodsell touches on core aspects of public administration while drawing on important, recent events to bring case material and empirical evidence fully up to date. This new edition incorporates the events of 9/11 to explore their impact on future bureaucratic performance, speaking specifically to the massive reorganization under the new Department of Homeland Security. As well, Goodsell offers a complete assessment of the reinventing government movement and related reforms to show how far bureaucracies have come, while pointing to the challenges they continue to face. This title features the following: Updating worth highlighting: new data on public perceptions of bureaucracy; new section on the delegation of policy implementation to contractors and nonprofits; new statistics regarding quality-of-life improvements in American society since the 1980s; new profiles of real bureaucrats - and citizen interaction with them - giving bureaucracy a human face; new material on bureaucratic contributions to the political system that go beyond implementing policy; new coverage of the administrative consolidation following 9/11 and competitive outsourcing by the Bush Administration; new analysis of current reform proposals focused on market competition and business management practices; and, new proposals for ways to improve bureaucracy.

Does identity or economic rationality drive public opinion on European integration

Abstract: How do citizens respond to the reallocation of authority across levels of government? This article investigates the relative importance of economic versus identity bases of citizen support for the most far-reaching example of authority migration—European integration.

New Evidence on Instrumental, Conceptual, and Symbolic Utilization of University Research in Government Agencies

Abstract: This article addresses three questions: What is the extent of instrumental, conceptual, and symbolic use of university research in government agencies? Are there differences between the policy doma...

Still no pedagogy? Principle, pragmatism and compliance in primary education

Abstract: This article revisits Brian Simon's 1981 judgement that for deep‐seated historical reasons English education lacks a coherent and principled pedagogy. Given that since 1997 the tide of educational centralisation has added teaching methods to those aspects of schooling which the UK government and/or its agencies seek to prescribe, it is appropriate to test the continuing validity of Simon's claim by reference to a major policy initiative in the pedagogical domain: the government's Primary Strategy, published in May 2003. This article defines pedagogy as both the act of teaching and its attendant discourse and postulates three domains of ideas, values and evidence by which both are necessarily framed. It then critically assesses the Primary Strategy's account of some of the components of pedagogy thus defined, notably learning, teaching, curriculum and culture, and the political assumptions which appear to have shaped them. On this basis, the Primary Strategy is found to be ambiguous and possibly dishonest,...

Testing How Management Matters in an Era of Government by Performance Management

Abstract: Public administration finds itself in an era of government by performance management, which is reflected in the widespread assumption that management is a key determinant of performance, and that it is reasonable to expect managers to measurably improve organizational effectiveness. This article joins a growing literature in seeking to conceptualize and empirically test how external environmental influences and internal management factors combine to create performance, relying on data from the 2002–2003 National Administrative Studies Project (NASP-II) survey of state government health and human services officials. We categorize managerial efforts to facilitate organizational performance as determined either through their interactions with the organizational environment, or through employing workable levers to change internal organizational culture, structure, and technology. Among the external environmental variables we find that the support of elected officials and the influence of the public and media have a positive impact on effectiveness. Among internal management choices, the ability to create a developmental organizational culture, establish a focus on results through goal clarity, and decentralize decision-making authority are all positively associated with organizational effectiveness. AN ERA OF GOVERNMENT BY PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Frederick Mosher’s Democracy and the Public Service (1982) characterizes the history of public administration in the United States as falling into different eras. He portrays the twentieth century as dominated by two phases: government by the efficient (1906–1937), This is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the National Public Management Research Conference, October 9–11, 2003, at Georgetown University. The authors would like to thank Pamela Herd, Patrick Wolf, and three anonymous reviewers for insightful suggestions on revising the article. Data analyzed in this article were collected under the auspices of the National Administrative Studies Project (NASP-II), a project supported in part by the Forum for Policy Research and Public Service at Rutgers University and under a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Center for State Health Policy, also at Rutgers University. Naturally, this support does not necessarily imply an endorsement of analyses and opinions in the article. Address correspondence to Donald P. Moynihan at dmoynihan@bushschool.tamu.edu. doi:10.1093/jopart/mui016 Advance Access publication on December 16, 2004 Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Vol. 15, no. 3 a 2005 Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Inc.; all rights reserved. JPART 15:421–439

Does E‐Government Promote Accountability? A Comparative Analysis of Website Openness and Government Accountability

Abstract: Under the global pressure of information technology, the adoption of web-based technologies in public administration has created a new government-and-citizen interface However, whether e-government will unambiguously lead to a more transparent, interactive, open and hence, accountable, government remains a central question Applying a framework of global pressure effects on bureaucratic change, this paper conducts an empirical study on website openness and accountability in fourteen countries Even when overall accountability levels rise, the accountability gap between different national bureaucracies often remains intact as web-based technologies typically maintain or reinforce the existing practices The question of whether e-government promotes accountability depends on what kind of bureaucracy one is referring to in the first place In the current debate about global convergence and national divergence on the effect of globalization on public bureaucracies, the spread of e-government provides a case of convergence in practice rather than in results

Privatizing the Welfare State: Nonprofit Community-Based Organizations as Political Actors

Abstract: This paper examines a form of state social provision that has been neglected by current sociological theory: publicly funded supportive services. Federal policies of privatization and devolution, embraced since the Reagan years, have made private, nonprofit organizations the primary deliverers of these services. Public supportive services are distributed via competitive state- and local-level allocative processes that send government contracts to specific nonprofit community-based organizations (CBOs), which in turn serve specific neighborhoods and individuals. I describe a model by which CBOs generate greater contract revenues by adding electoral politics to their more traditional roles of providing services and building communities. This model produces a new kind of CBO: the machine politics CBO. By reciprocally distributing services to residents and binding residents to the organization, machine politics CBOs create reliable voting constituencies for local elected officials. These officials trade these...

Secure borders, safe haven, domopolitics

Abstract: What implications do emerging spaces, concepts and identities of security have for the practice of citizenship? This article examines security and citizenship in the UK. As its focus it takes a recent White Paper published by the British government called Secure Borders, Safe Haven (2002). Two arguments are developed. First, it is argued that with this document, and the reforms it proposes for immigration, asylum and citizenship in the UK, we are in the presence of ‘domopolitics’. Whereas political economy is descended from the will to govern the state as a household, domopolitics aspires to govern the state like a home. Consequently, domopolitics and liberal political economy exist in tension with one another. Second, we need new forms of comparison if we are to adequately map domopolitics. To this end, the article compares the domopolitics of the homeland and similar securitizations not with the interstate security games of the Cold War, but with the governmentality of social security.