This book is a fascinating exploration of public opinion in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on the Afrobarometer, a comprehensive cross-national survey research project, it reveals what ordinary Africans ...think about democracy and market reform, subjects on which almost nothing is otherwise known. The authors find that support for democracy in Africa is wide but shallow and that Africans feel trapped between state and market. Beyond multiparty elections, people want clean and accountable government. They will accept economic structural adjustment only if it is accompanied by an effective state, the availability of jobs, and an equitable society. What are the origins of these attitudes? Far from being constrained by social structure and cultural values, Africans learn about reform on the basis of knowledge, reasoning, and experience. Weighing supply and demand for reform, the authors reach cautious conclusions about the varying prospects of African countries for attaining fully-fledged democracy and markets.0
Whether the goal is building a local park or developing disaster response models, collaborative governance is changing the way public agencies at the local, regional, and national levels are working ...with each other and with key partners in the nonprofit and private sectors. While the academic literature has spawned numerous case studies and context- or policy-specific models for collaboration, the growth of these innovative collaborative governance systems has outpaced the scholarship needed to define it.Collaborative Governance Regimesbreaks new conceptual and practical ground by presenting an integrative framework for working across boundaries to solve shared problems, a typology for understanding variations among collaborative governance regimes, and an approach for assessing both process and productivity performance. This book draws on diverse literatures and uses rich case illustrations to inform scholars and practitioners about collaborative governance regimes and to provide guidance for designing, managing, and studying such endeavors in the future.Collaborative Governance Regimeswill be of special interest to scholars and researchers in public administration, public policy, and political science who want a framework for theory building, yet the book is also accessible enough for students and practitioners.
Co-production and co-creation occur when citizens participate actively in delivering and designing the services they receive. It has come increasingly onto the agenda of policymakers, as interest in ...citizen participation has more generally soared. Expectations are high and it is regarded as a possible solution to the public sector’s decreased legitimacy and dwindling resources, by accessing more of society’s capacities. In addition, it is seen as part of a more general drive to reinvigorate voluntary participation and strengthen social cohesion in an increasingly fragmented and individualized society. Co-Production and Co-Creation: Engaging Citizens in Public Services offers a systematic and comprehensive theoretical and empirical examination of the concepts of co-production and co-creation and their application in practice. It shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners. It addresses the topics with regard to co-production and co-creation and will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students in the fields of public administration, business administration, economics, political science, public management, political science, service management, sociology and voluntary sector studies.
Collaborative governance Donahue, John D; Zeckhauser, Richard J
2011., 20110228, 2011, 2011-02-28, 20110101
eBook
All too often government lacks the skill, the will, and the wallet to meet its missions. Schools fall short of the mark while roads and bridges fall into disrepair. Health care costs too much and ...delivers too little. Budgets bleed red ink as the cost of services citizens want outstrips the taxes they are willing to pay. Collaborative Governance is the first book to offer solutions by demonstrating how government at every level can engage the private sector to overcome seemingly insurmountable problems and achieve public goals more effectively.
Over the past century, opinion polls have come to pervade American politics. Despite their shortcomings, the notion prevails that polls broadly represent public sentiment. But do they? InSilent ...Voices, Adam Berinsky presents a provocative argument that the very process of collecting information on public preferences through surveys may bias our picture of those preferences. In particular, he focuses on the many respondents who say they "don't know" when asked for their views on the political issues of the day.
Using opinion poll data collected over the past forty years, Berinsky takes an increasingly technical area of research--public opinion--and synthesizes recent findings in a coherent and accessible manner while building on this with his own findings. He moves from an in-depth treatment of how citizens approach the survey interview, to a discussion of how individuals come to form and then to express opinions on political matters in the context of such an interview, to an examination of public opinion in three broad policy areas--race, social welfare, and war. He concludes that "don't know" responses are often the result of a systematic process that serves to exclude particular interests from the realm of recognized public opinion. Thus surveys may then echo the inegalitarian shortcomings of other forms of political participation and even introduce new problems altogether.
Shocking moments in society create an extraordinary political environment that permits political and opinion changes that are unlikely during times of normal politics. Strong emotions felt by the ...public during catastrophes - even if experienced only vicariously through media coverage - are a powerful motivator of public opinion and activism. This is particularly true when emotional reactions coincide with attributing blame to governmental agencies or officials. By examining public opinion during one extraordinary event, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Lonna Rae Atkeson and Cherie D. Maestas show how media information interacts with emotion in shaping a wide range of political opinions about government and political leaders. Catastrophic events bring citizens together, provide common experiences and information, and create opinions that transcend traditional political boundaries. These moments encourage citizens to re-examine their understanding of government, its leaders and its role in a society from a less partisan perspective.
States of credit Stasavage, David
2011., 20110705, 2011, 2011-07-05, Letnik:
35
eBook
States of Credit provides the first comprehensive look at the joint development of representative assemblies and public borrowing in Europe during the medieval and early modern eras. In this ...pioneering book, David Stasavage argues that unique advances in political representation allowed certain European states to gain early and advantageous access to credit, but the emergence of an active form of political representation itself depended on two underlying factors: compact geography and a strong mercantile presence.
This book provides a new institutional economics perspective on alternative models of local governance, offering a comprehensive view of local government organization and finance in the developing ...world. The experiences of ten developing/transition economies are reviewed to draw lessons of general interest in strengthening responsive, responsible, and accountable local governance. The book is written in simple user friendly language to facilitate a wider readership by policy makers and practitioners in addition to students and scholars of public finance, economics and politics.
The New Public Governance? Osborne, Stephen P
2010, 20100121, 2009, 2010-01-21, 2009-12-22, 20100101
eBook
Despite predictions that 'new public management' would establish itself as the new paradigm of Public Administration and Management, recent academic research has highlighted concerns about the ...intra-organizational focus and limitations of this approach. This book represents a comprehensive analysis of the state of the art of public management, examining and framing the debate in this important area.
The New Public Governance? sets out to explore this emergent field of research and to present a framework with which to understand it. Divided into five parts, the book examines:
Theoretical underpinnings of the concept of governance, especially competing perspectives from Europe and the US
Governance of inter-organizational partnerships and contractual relationships
Governance of policy networks
Lessons learned and future directions
Under the steely editorship of Stephen Osborne and with contributions from leading academics including Owen Hughes, John M. Bryson, Don Kettl, Guy Peters and Carsten Greve, this book will be of particular interest to researchers and students of public administration, public management, public policy and public services management.
Stephen P. Osborne is Professor of International Public Management and Director of the Centre for Public Services Research at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He is President of the International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM) and Editor of Public Management Review (PMR).
‘Stephen Osborne is to be congratulated for assembling an impressive array of contributors and producing a text which makes a major contribution to the debates about this emerging paradigm.’ - Robert Pyper, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
'This book showcases the best writing on ‘public governance’, bringing together new research in institutional analysis, policy dynamics, and government-society relationships. It provides a good balance of conceptual insights and empirical analysis grounded in the large changes evident in advanced countries in recent decades.' - Brian Head, University of Queensland, Australia
'This text, edited by Stephen Osborne, may do as much for critical insight to Europe’s public service delivery as the David Osborne and Ted Gaebler text on Reinventing Government did for the United States in the 1990s in refocusing the public sector for improvement.' - Dean F. Eitel, DePaul University, USA
1. Introduction: The (New) Public Governance: A Suitable Case for Treatment? (Stephen P. Osborne) Part I: Theoretical Perspectives on Public Governance 2. Global Perspectives on Governance (Patricia Kennett) 3. Meta-Governance and Public Management (B. Guy Peters) 4. Innovations in Governance (Mark Moore and Jean Hartley) 5. Governance and Governability (Jan Kooiman) 6. Does Governance Exist? (Owen Hughes) 7. What Endures? Public Governance and the Cycle of Reform (Laurence E. Lynn, Jr.) Part II: Governance and Inter-Organizational Partnerships to Deliver Public Services 8. Theory of Organizational Partnerships: Partnership Advantages, Disadvantages and Success Factors (Ronald W. McQuaid) 9. Public-Private Partnerships and Public Governance Challenges (Carsten Greve and Graeme Hodge) 10. Introducing the Theory of Collaborative Advantage (Siv Vangen and Chris Huxham) 11. Relationship Marketing, Relational Capital and the Governance of Public Services Delivery (Stephen P. Osborne, Kate McLaughlin and Celine Chew) 12. Leading Across Frontiers: How Visionary Leaders Integrate People, Processes, Structures and Resources (Barbara C. Crosby, John M. Bryson and Melissa M. Stone) 13. Public Governance and the Third Sector: Opportunities for Co-Production and Innovation? (Victor Pestoff and Taco Brandsen) Part III: Governance of Contractual Relationships 14. Governance, Contract Management and Public Management (Donald F. Kettl) 15. Governance of Outsourcing and Contractual Relationships (Federica Farneti, Emanuele Padovani and David W. Young) 16. The Governance of Contracting Relationships: "Killing the Golden Goose": A Third-Sector Perspective (Steven Rathgeb Smith and Judith Smyth) Part IV: Governance of Inter-Organizational Networks 17. Trust in Governance Networks: Looking for Conditions for Innovative Solutions and Outcomes (Erik-Hans Klijn) 18. Implementation and Managerial Networking in the New Public Governance (Laurence J. O’Toole Jr, and Kenneth J. Meier) 19. From New Public Management to Networked Community Governance? Strategic Local Public Service Networks in England (Steve Martin) Part V: Governance of Policy Networks 20. Policy Networks: Theory and Practice (Tobias Jung) 21. Policy Networks in Practice: The Debate on the Future of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (Menno Huys and Joop Koppenjan) 22. Governance, Networks and Policy Change: The Case of Cannabis in the United Kingdom (Beatriz Acevedo and Richard Common) 23. Conclusions: Public Governance and Public Services Delivery: A Research Agenda for the Future (Stephen P. Osborne)
Following on from the success of the editors' previous book, New Public Management: The Transformation of Ideas and Practice, which examined the public reform process up to the end of the last ...decade, this new volume draws on the previous knowledge both theoretically and empirically. It examines and debates the post-new public management reform development in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand. The ideal follow-up to the previous volume, this book includes many of the same contributors in addition to some fresh voices, and is a must for anyone looking for an integrated framework of analysis. Comprehensive and analytical, it is an important contribution to the study of public administration and particularly to the reform of public management.
Tom Christensen is from the University of Oslo and Per Lægreid is from the University of Bergen, both in Norway.
Contents: Preface; Introduction - theoretical approach and research questions, Tom Christensen and Per Lægreid; Still fragmented government or reassertion of the centre?, Tom Christensen, Amund Lie and Per Lægreid; Reform design and performance in Australia and New Zealand, John Halligan; Types of state organisations: arguments, doctrines and changes beyond new public management, Paul G. Roness; Convergence and standardization in telecommunications regulation: trajectories of change and reform in the Asian Pacific regulatory state, Martin Painter; Organizing immigration - a comparison of New Zealand and Norway , Tom Christensen, Per Lægreid and Richard Norman; Central banking reform across the world: only by night are all cats grey, Martin Marcussen; Quests for transparency: signs of a new institutional era in the health care field, Maria Blomgren and Kirstin Sahlin-Andersson; Public-private partnerships: a comparative perspective on Victoria and Denmark, Carsten Greve and Graeme Hodge; (The difficult art of) outsourcing welfare services: experiences from Sweden and New Zealand, Anders Forssell and Lars Norén; New public management and the ghost of Max Weber: exorcised or still haunting?, Robert Gregory; Bibliography; Index.