This article seeks to explain the differences in outcomes of social services reform in Croatia during the previous two decades. While the service management reform was based on the principles of ...effectiveness, efficiency and participation in one segment of social services, in the other segment, reform was used for the development of partisan patronage networks. Using the comparable case strategy, the article focuses on six social services and relies on interviews with policy actors and official documents to map and explain different reform outcomes. The article identifies two factors that led to differences in provision of reformed social services and affected the capacity of the patronage-driven political executive to use reform as an instrument of politicized allocation of public jobs. A sufficiently institutionalized setting in which services were provided prior to the reform reduces the ability of political parties to integrate political patronage into service management. In the case of minimal or non-existent institutional setting, the presence of empowered or represented beneficiaries acts as the bulwark against political capture.
Cilj rada je doprinijeti razvoju empirijske teorije javnih politika u pitanjima kvalitete dizajna javnih politika. Rad je fokusiran na ciljeve javnih politika koji su središnja sastavnica dizajna ...svakog resora. Analitički okvir utemeljen je na razlikovanju sedam tehničkih tipova ciljeva javnih politika: opći ciljevi, ciljevi usmjereni na način ostvarenja, na odgovornog aktera, na korisnika, konkretno usmjereni ciljevi, polu-strukturirani te strukturirani ciljevi. Prikupljanje i analiza podataka vođeni su pravilima kvalitativne analize sadržaja, a ciljevi se istražuju na temelju 11 strateških dokumenata hrvatske vlasti. U istraživanim politikama dominiraju ciljevi s općenitim svrhama, te manjim brojem strukturnih elemenata što pokazuje nižu razinu operacionalizacije ciljeva, lošiju kvalitetu pripreme za provedbu i povezivanje s instrumentima odnosno manju učinkovitost dizajna hrvatskih javnih politika. Skupine analiziranih politika se razlikuju te su strategije namijenjene ciljanim skupinama bolje operacionalizirane nego one temeljnih područja i specifičnih društvenih problema. Analiza tehničkih tipova ciljeva pokazuje kako su omjeri među učestalosti njihova pojavljivanja dobar indikator ukupne učinkovitosti dizajna javnih politika.
The goal of the paper is to contribute to the development of the empirical theory of public policies in matters of the quality of public policy design. The paper is focused on the goals of public policies which are the central component of the design of each policy area. The analytical framework is based on the distinction of seven technical types of public policy goals: general goals, goals focused on the way of realization, on the responsible actor, on the user, concretely focused goals, semi-structured and structured goals. The collection and analysis of data are guided by the rules of qualitative content analysis, and the objectives are investigated using 11 strategic documents of the Croatian government. In the examined policies, goals with general purposes dominate, as well as those with a smaller number of structural elements, which shows a lower level of operationalization of goals, poorer quality of preparation for implementation and connection with instruments, and a lower effectiveness of the design of Croatian public policies. The groups of analyzed policies differ, and the strategies intended for the target groups are better operationalized than those of the fundamental areas and specific social problems. The analysis of technical types of goals shows that the ratios between the frequency of their occurrence are a good indicator of the overall efficiency of public policy design.
The growing intensity and complexity of public service has spurred policy reform efforts across the globe, many featuring attempts to promote more collaborative government. Collaboration in Public ...Service Delivery sheds light on these efforts, analysing and reconceptualising the major types of collaboration in public service delivery through a governance lens.
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Purpose: This paper unfolds the ways in which Croatia, as a young post-communist democracy, has aligned its transition and consolidation with the development of education programs that would support ...the protection of human rights and the creation of a democratic political culture. Design/methodology/approach: By combining the existing studies with the authors' own analyses of documents and internet sources, as well as interviews with teachers, this paper reveals that by adopting vague and non-binding policies, the Croatian political elite has demonstrated a lack of political will and courage over the past twenty-five years to develop a systematic and quality-based citizenship education. Findings: After long-term negligence, in the most recent five-year period, the need to change the educational path has gained prominence on the policy and political agenda. However, the reform process did not result in bridging, but in the deepening of ideological divides within the Croatian society. With the officially adopted interdisciplinary and cross-curricular approach, the responsibility for carrying out citizenship education was placed in the hands of teachers, with civil society organizations taking a compensating role. Whilst the former lack practical education, as well as guidelines and resources to incorporate citizenship education into the subjects they teach, the latter are incapable of reaching out to a sufficient share of the youth population. The outcome is that the youth continuously displays inadequate levels of citizenship competences.
Co-production is an area of policy making in many countries which has received little treatment in the policy studies literature. It has been studied in the field of public administration and public ...management however, albeit mainly in the case of education-related activities in Scandinavian countries. Using the cases of co-production of support services for the disabled and the elderly in the little-studied programs found in Croatia and Thailand as illustrative examples, this article examines how the concept of co-production can be viewed as an example of the use of a new policy tool, bringing together the insights of both policy and management theory in order to understand its origins and evolution. The article highlights the importance of viewing co-production using an integrated lens if studies of co-production are to advance.
This paper investigates the technical dimension of policy goals or their structural properties. The paper challenges the idea that policy goals can be conceptualized within a unidimensional ...hierarchy. It aims to contribute to policy theory by classifying goals based on systematic empirical research. Qualitative content analysis of 11 governmental strategies was conducted by focusing on the overlap of six technical features of policy goals: level of specification, mode of accomplishment, presence of time frames, quantifiable indicators, beneficiaries, and responsible actors. Based on the analysis, the paper distinguishes seven technical types of policy goals: broad, mode-centered, direction-centered, beneficiary-centered, actor-centered, semi-structured, and structured. Technical types of policy goals do not form a hierarchy with clear-cut levels, but can be placed on a continuum, from broad to structured, with the mixed types in between. This insight could enhance policy design theory by introducing a more sophisticated tuning of policy goals, potentially leading to better advice for practical policy planning and, in turn, to more successful policy implementation.
Purpose: This paper unfolds the ways in which Croatia, as a young post-communist democracy, has aligned its transition and consolidation with the development of education programs that would support ...the protection of human rights and the creation of a democratic political culture. Design/methodology/approach: By combining the existing studies with the authors' own analyses of documents and internet sources, as well as interviews with teachers, this paper reveals that by adopting vague and non-binding policies, the Croatian political elite has demonstrated a lack of political will and courage over the past twenty-five years to develop a systematic and quality-based citizenship education. Findings: After long-term negligence, in the most recent five-year period, the need to change the educational path has gained prominence on the policy and political agenda. However, the reform process did not result in bridging, but in the deepening of ideological divides within the Croatian society. With the officially adopted interdisciplinary and cross-curricular approach, the responsibility for carrying out citizenship education was placed in the hands of teachers, with civil society organizations taking a compensating role. Whilst the former lack practical education, as well as guidelines and resources to incorporate citizenship education into the subjects they teach, the latter are incapable of reaching out to a sufficient share of the youth population. The outcome is that the youth continuously displays inadequate levels of citizenship competences (Original übernommen).
Uspješnost javnih politika nerijetko se procjenjuje na temelju njihovih ishoda, što podrazumijeva ocjenu djelotvornosti u postizanju zadanih ciljeva. Međutim, važna karika u uzročnom lancu koji ...povezuje društvene probleme s jedne strane i rezultate s druge strane jest upravljanje procesom stvaranja javnih politika. Prepoznajući važnost procesnog aspekta političkog odlučivanja za uspješnost javnih politika, rad nastoji otkriti koje vrste upravljačkih prioriteta postoje u Hrvatskoj. Na temelju tematske analize procesnih ciljeva javnih politika u 11 hrvatskih strateških dokumenata, rad pokazuje kako dokumenti predviđaju niz upravljačkih zadaća počevši od donošenja temeljnih konstitutivnih odluka o osnovnim načelima i strukturama za stvaranje javnih politika, preko aktivnosti kojima se usmjerava oblikovanje politikâ pa sve do praktičnog upravljanja procesom provedbe planiranih aktivnosti. U dokumentima hrvatskih javnih politika, pritom, znatno dominira potonji skup aktivnosti pa najveći broj procesnih ciljeva kao prioritete postavlja one vezane uz osiguranje uvjeta i operativnih procedura za provedbu politikâ te upravljanje međuorganizacijskim i međuljudskim odnosima.
The success of public policies is often judged on the basis of policy outcomes, which implies an assessment of the effectiveness of achieving the expected policy goals and objectives. Nevertheless, an important aspect of public policy, which links societal needs and collective problems on the one hand with policy results on the other, relates to the governance of the whole process of policy design and implementation. Highlighting the importance of the procedural dimension in the decision-making process and its relevance for policy success, this paper seeks to describe and systemise different types of governance priorities in Croatia. The paper uses a thematic analysis of 11 policy documents, ranging from youth policy and disability policy to education and transport policy, to show that Croatian public policies encompass a whole array of governance priorities. Applying the Multiple Governance Framework offered by Michael Hill and Peter Hupe, the paper classifies these priorities into 1) fundamental constitutive decisions regarding the basic principles and structures of policymaking, 2) activities which offer guidance on policy formulation, and 3) practical management of the policy implementation phase. Priorities encompassed by Croatian policy documents are largely dominated by those focusing on operational governance, specifically by goals that aim to create the right conditions and operative procedures for improving policy implementation. Goals oriented toward the management of inter-organisational and interpersonal relations are also very common. Finally, a significant share of the goals relates to the efforts to lay the groundwork for designing new strategic or operative documents, as well as appeals to different levels of authority to follow through on already existing strategic documents. The latter finding suggests implementation gaps and points to the need for further investigation and improvement of governance capacities within the Croatian executive branch.
The growing intensity and complexity of challenges facing the world today - from climate change and pandemics to widespread inequality and radicalization - have spurred reforms of policy instruments ...across the globe. This chapter brings collaborative implementation tools into sharper focus and systematically reviews their scope and innate features as well as their capabilities and constrains to act as a solution to a wide variety of modern policy and governance challenges. The general tendency toward application of less direct government tools has also marked development of substantive implementation tools. The benefits of a collaborative relationship between actors involved in policy implementation are increasingly being recognised in those policy sectors that over last decades proved to be resilient toward the externalisation of public services. Employment of co-management and co-production as organisational tools implies that delivery of services and goods is dependent on cooperation between governmental and social actors, be they individual citizens or their associations.
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