Administrative ethics in post-MAO China: challenges and chances an introduction

This article provides an introduction to the recent development of administrative ethics in the People's Republic of China, which embarked on the path of reform and opening to the outside world in 1978. The article also summarizes the issues discussed in the following articles. These include Chinese views of corruption since Tiananmen, the issue of whistleblowing, organizational ethics and bureaucratic corruption in Chinese schools, changing administrative ethos and corruption in reform China, and the process of professionalization and rhe resultant rebuilding of administrative ethics in post-Mao China.     

URBAN MANAGEMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AS NEW INSTITUTIONS IN THE NEW UKRAINE

Local government and modern urban management techniques will play a key role in the transition of Ukraine's institutions from a communist to a free economy and society. This paper provides a historic context for this transition, discusses the problems encountered in building urban management capacities and local government institutions, and explores what it will take to achieve real change.

The paper places the problems of revitalization and rebuilding of these Ukrainian institutions in historical perspective, with special attention to inherited patterns of Soviet administrative culture. The Sovietization of urban planning and administration, and living standards and the creation of nomenklature (the main governmental “human resource”), are analyzed as the starting point for rebuilding Ukraine's local governments. The paper traces the main sources and consequences of “continuous institutional crisis,” such as distrust, corruption, and deterioration of the capabilities of the Ukrainian state. Also examined are the current effects of economic globalization on the development of local and urban governments.

Following a review of Ukrainian “path dependence” and recent difficulties in institutional building, the paper outlines the most important tasks for future development and an agenda for Ukraine's “institutional entrepreneurs.” The paper emphasizes that it is vital to create a professional, rule-based bureaucracy and merit-based municipal civil service.     

Public Administration Reform in Jordan: Concepts and Practices

ABSTRACT

This study reviews the transition of Jordan from a British colony to a modern independent state. It covers contextual attributes influencing the development of the administrative system such as centralization, demographic explosion, low economic growth, excessive reliance on patronage in recruitment for public positions, and corruption. These and other factors hinder administrative reform efforts. As case analysis illustrates, administrative decision making is non-institutional, regularly undermines the merit system, indifferent to accountability, and manifests a low commitment to professional ethics. The study emphasizes that administrative reform in Jordan needs to reconcile these obstacles and to advance skilled and ethical organizational leaders.     

Decentralization and initiative: TVA returns to its roots

The Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal corporation established by Congress in 1933, is charged with the integrated regional development of the Tennessee Valley's resources, including flood control, navigation, reforestation and proper use of marginal lands, electricity generation, and agricultural and economic development. TVA's early leaders, especially David E. Lilienthal and Gordon R. Clapp, articulated a doctrine of “grass roots democracy” and “decentralization” that protected TVA from rival federal bureaucracies and provided greater flexibility and freedom in carrying out TVA's multi-purpose mission. This doctrine also led to innovations in the professionalization of TVA' s highly skilled and diverse workforce. Clapp, a recognized leader in public administration, promoted employee initiative, easy access to top management, multi-disciplinary teamwork, labor/management collaboration, and partnerships with states and localities that took account of local needs and values. The development of joint cooperative councils and conferences, along with other initiatives, were visible manifestations of this “democratic method of administration.”

In the aftermath of Clapp's chairmanship that ended in 1954, TVA placed principal emphasis on expanding its electric power system and moved to a more traditional bureaucratic structure of tight control, accountability, and discipline. The crisis of survival that developed in the 1980s had its roots in a growing isolation, rigidity, and decline of professional excellence that was an outgrowth of this new bureaucracy. The current TVA chairman, Marvin T. Runyon, is leading a recovery effort to restore TVA's competitiveness. This effort recalls the vision and values of “grass roots democracy” and “decentralization” espoused by Clapp and Lilienthal. Although coming to TVA with no prior experience in the public sector, Runyon's emphasis on customer service and satisfaction, quality products, teamwork, creative problem solving, employee empowerment, and being “the best” recalls the professionalism and professionalization of the public administrators who led TVA in its early years.     

Exploring agency as a basis for ethical theory in American public administration

This articale argues that agency, the normative theory associated with the “acting for” relationship in society, has had a profound, but often unrecognized affect on ethics in public administration. Accordingly, it seeks to provide a brief review of agency theory as it applies to contemporary American public adminis- tration. The review provides an overview of agency theory, gives an example of how deeply it influences American public administration, shows how it facilitates ethical action in administration and reviews some of the major obstacles to employing agency theory in the modern American administrative state.     

Administrative reform in modern Iran: an historical analysis

This article discusses administrative reforms in modern Iran in an historical context. Beginning in the mid-19th century, administrative reform became a concern of national policy-makers. A number of reforms have been attempted by the three political systems/regimes of Qajar, Pahlavi, and the Islamic Republic. Additionally, several administrative reforms were carried out, though short-lived, by certain revolutionary and popular governments in Iran. Efforts toward administrative reform are reviewed with an assessment of the positive and negative consequences or implications for the development of public administration in modern Iran. It is also argued that most of the dictated administrative reforms have failed in Iran, and that a culturally sensitive attempt at administrative reform has had a much greater chance to succeed than the traditional top-down approaches. Iran's revolutionary experiences tend to empirically support the validity of the former approach. Finally, further research is suggested on recent administrative reforms in post-revolutionary Iran.     

Public administration in hong kong: Crises and prospects

Current studies on Hong Kong public administration have overlooked three emerging crises of the administrative system -- the crises of mediocrity, the public service, and the metapolicy -- which may result in a complete collapse of the colonial regime. The analysis reveals the following. Firstly, operating within a paradoxical context, civil servants find it difficult to maximize their contribution. Hard pressed by the delimma of “to strive for excellence or to observe medicoirty,” many choose the latter. Thus, the overall performance of many Hong Kong public agencies and civil servants is unacceptable. Secondly, at the absence of a political theory which redefines the relationship between the political system and socio-economic system and thus the mission of the public service, many civil servants lack commitment to the public service and therefore the norm of medicority is reinforced. And thirdly, the government has reformulated its metapolicy in a way that system overloading is likely, thus making Citizen insubordination probable. It is conclusded that the future of Hong Kong is bleak and that remedial actions are awaiting: the first task is the quest for a new set of political ideology and public philosohgy; the next is reformulation of a new metapolicy, followed by forceful pulbic sector management reform.     

Decentralized Recruitment and Selection in Thailand: Friend or Foe to Local Public Administration?

This article draws attention to the advantages and disadvantages derived from decentralized recruitment and selection for a form of local public administrative unit, the municipality. This was examined within the context of Thailand, a unitary transitional country where bureaucratization and centralization had been the norms in its public administrative system for centuries. It argues that local fiscal management and reformed local government structure would not be successful when executed by incompetent local civil servants. To summarize, recruitment and selection function as a “vacuum” and “filter” that organizations employ to obtain proficient and skilled human resources for their organizations. In Thailand at the local level, it appears that discussions of recruitment and selection functions barely disguise the inept procedures that occur in reality. These are grounded in actions looking towards recentralization, local-cronyism, and nepotism that have traditionally rooted and underpinned the Thai local administration in the area of personnel administration.     

Welfare Administration Reform Between Coordination and Specialization

This article identifies transboundary coordination practices and related modes of specialization in welfare administration reforms. We describe how the 2005 reform of the welfare administration in Norway started as a process of integration involving merger and partnership, but later, following the 2008 reorganization, introduced re-centralization and re-specialization. The main research questions are how we can explain this change of administrative reform? Why was the integrative administrative reform not sustainable and reorganization through re-specialization seen as a better answer to the “wicked issues” of welfare services? To answer these questions we apply a structural-instrumental perspective and a cultural-institutional perspective.     

Civil service reforms in British India and united Pakistan

Nearly 200 years of British rule of the Indian sub-continent clearly and significantly affected the society and people in the region. One of the continuing legacies of the British rule has been in the area of civil administration. The Indian Civil Service (ICS) characterized by centralization of authority and elite nature symbolized the British domination of the Indian people. From time to time attempts were made to reform the ICS. These reforms included introduction of competitive examination as a mode of entry, provision for systematic training and Indianization of the service. Pakistan inherited and continued with the British administrative system. The Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) was modelled after the ICS. A number of attempts were made to reform the CSP but all failed due to lack of political will and bureaucratic resistance to major administrative reforms.     

The new public personnel and the new public service

The New Public Administration sought a public service whose legitimacy would be based, in part, on its promotion of “social equity.” Since 1968, several personnel changes congruent with the New Public Administration have occurred: traditional managerial authority over public employees has been reduced through collective bargaining and changes in constitutional doctrines; the public service has become more socially representative; establishing a representative bureaucracy has become an important policy goal; more emphasis is now placed on employee participation in the work place; and legal changes regarding public administrators’ liability have promoted an “inner check” on their behavior. At the same time, however, broad systemic changes involving decentralization and the relationship between political officials and career civil servants have tended to undercut the impact of those changes in personnel. The theories of Minnowbrook I, therefore, have proven insufficient as a foundation for a new public service. Grounding the public service's legitimacy in the U.S. Constitution is a more promising alternative and is strongly recommended.

The New Public Administration, like other historical calls for drastic administrative change in the United States, sought to develop a new basis for public administrative legitimacy. Earlier successful movements grounded the legitimacy of the public service in high social standing and leadership, representativeness and close relationship to political parties, or in putative political neutrality and scientific managerial and technical expertise. To these bases, the New Public Administration sought to add “social equity.” As George Frederickson explained, “Administrators are not neutral. They should be committed to both good management and social equity as values, things to be achieved, or rationales. “⁽¹⁾ Social equity was defined as “includ[ing] activities designed to enhance the political power and economic well being of … [disadvantaged] minorities.” It was necessary because “the procedures of representative democracy presently operate in a way that either fails or only very gradually attempts to reverse systematic discrimination against” these groups.⁽²⁾

Like the Federalists, the Jacksonians, and the civil service reformers and progressives before it, the New Public Administration focused upon administrative reform as a means of redistributing political power.⁽³⁾ Also, like these earlier movements, the New Public Administration included a model of a new type of public servant. This article sets forth that new model and considers the extent to which the major changes that have actually taken place in public personnel administration since 1968 are congruent with it. We find that while contemporary public personnel reflects many of the values and concerns advanced by the New Public Administration, substantial changes in the political environment of public administration have frustrated the development of a new public service that would encompass the larger goals and ideals expressed at Minnowbrook I. Building on the trends of the past two decades, this article also speculates about the future. Our conclusion is that ultimately the public service's legitimacy must be grounded in the Constitution. Although its focus is on macro-level political and administrative developments, the broad changes it discusses provide the framework from which many contemporary personnel work-life issues, such as pay equity and flexitime, have emerged.     

Change dynamics and public management: Challenges and opportunities

With the growth of contemporary technology, communications, and transportation, infused with television, computers, and the information highway, all of us are quickly becoming aware of the linked consequences of change. As traditional boundaries are collapsing around us, there is a growing sensitivity to the need for change, along with the belief that we need to plan for it. As such, strategic planning, competitive positioning, and innovative management systems that involve longer-term perspectives, critical trade-offs, and opportunity-driven forecasting are being fashioned here in the United States, and around the world. To grasp the initiative to shape an organizational context that will ensure a competitive, vibrant, healthy, fiscally rigorous and humane decision making environment for the public sector is the analytical foundation on which this symposium is anchored. Public managers have no option but to respond to American and global events, and the accompanying cultural, economic and political developments with courage, innovations, and strategic perspectives. It is clear that a paradigmatic crisis is occurring in American society and in public administration. Therefore, the harbingers of new paradigms are being created and crafted, which provide “hard” methods of inquiry, “real” cases of success; sound “fiscal” measures of performance; and “clearer” professional/leadership redefinitions of responsibility.     

Democratization through education? Theory and practice of the Czech post-revolution education system and its reforms

The transformation process from an authoritarian/totalitarian system entails many institutional changes, however, the individual citizen is often being overlooked in this chaotic, fast-paced process and his or her “transformation” into a democrat is taken for granted. The changing socio-political system and its exigencies may lead to nostalgia and social frustrations, which in turn cause democratic backsliding. In order to cultivate a democratic society and avoid future backsliding, the post-communist states quickly set out to reform their educational systems, both in form and substance. By reviewing the reform process of the Czech educational system and discussing the prevailing legacies left by the communist regime, the article will show that through the “destruction” of the former system and its de-monopolization, decentralization and de-ideologization, the state deliberately lost significant means and power to transform Czechs from “homo sovieticus” to “homo democraticus” and is now left with a dependence on the highly autonomous schools and their propensity to foster democratic generations that will uphold the democratic state in the future. This paradox is reminiscent of the so-called Böckenförde dilemma, claiming that the liberal democratic state “lives by prerequisites which it cannot guarantee itself”.     

Introduction

Italy is facing the difficulties and the challenges created by the current worldwide transformation of the economy, of government and civil society by crafting appropriate government policies and actions as well as adjusting organizational structures and procedures. This special issue shows a picture of a country undergoing a profound process of change at all levels of governments and main areas of public policy. The predominant features are the promotion of private enterprise and decentralization, while administrative reforms encourage the formation of a new administrative culture where the traditional centrality of administrative law no longer exists and public administration becomes more open and managerially oriented.     

The Politics of Administrative Reforms in Ghana: Perspectives from Path Dependency and Punctuated Equilibrium Theories

Since 1957, various Ghanaian governments have made, and continue to make, attempts to reform the administrative state for development. In spite of this, not much seems to have been achieved over the years. Why has the passion of successive governments for reforming the administrative system failed to yield the desired outcomes? What is the nexus between regime turnover and frequent administrative reforms? Where do we want to go, and what will take us there or at least close to our intended destination? What approach is likely to maximize the chances of success and minimize those of failure? We argue that administrative reforms in Ghana have been consistently undermined by the discontinuity of reform initiatives undertaken by successive governments; the inability to have a “national agenda for development”; continuous reliance on expatriates as consultants and advisers; over-reliance on multinational institutions for financial support; and by the absence of a “developmental state.”     

Civil Society,the Economy,and Educational Assistance in Former Soviet Republics

Abstract

Liberal democracies throughout the world are committed to civil society in support of market economics and democratic politics. Through educational assistance programs, the U.S. government demonstrates this commitment by attempting to reinvigorate civil society in former Soviet republics and Eastern European countries in support of their economic and political reform efforts. Of particular interest are the Community Connections and Partners in Education programs conducted by the U.S. Department of State for interns from the former Soviet republics or now Eurasia, who participate in business and other professional internships in various locations in the U.S., including Northern Alabama.     

The evolution of policing in post-soviet Russia: Paternalism versus service in police. Officers' understanding of their role

This paper examines two interrelated issues: the role of police as an institution of Russian society and their role during the past 25 years. This research is based on a series of in-depth interviews conducted by the author in 2014–2016 with former and current police officers in three Russian cities. The paper traces changes in the perceived institutional roles of the Russian police by comparing police officers' views during three periods: early through mid-1990s, late-1990s through mid-2000s, and mid-2000s through 2010s. The study reports that, during the early period, Russian police were disfranchised from the state and this abandonment was a source of institutional identity crisis for law enforcement officers who remained on the job. This process was coupled with high levels of job dissatisfaction and the overall feeling of “abandonment” of police by the state.At the same time, it was during this post-Soviet period, when ideas of policing as a service to the society were introduced and sometimes entertained among the professional circles of police officers and other government officials. Furthermore, this period was marked by continuous, though often sporadic, institutional reforms and anti-corruption measures.In the second period, the Russian police were slowly engaging back into the state-building process, which caused increased job satisfaction and better retention rates. At the same time, the second period signified a decline of the “police as service” ideology and the comeback of paternalistic views on policing. During this time, the government's efforts to reform police and anti-corruption measures became systemic and better organized. Also, in the second period, members of the civil society became more active in demanding public accountability and transparency from the Russian police.Finally, the modern period of police development presents a case in which the institutional identity of the Russian police has been clearly connected to the state's capacity. This process is coupled with increased paternalistic views among police officers and a failure of “police as a service” doctrine. In such an environment, the efforts by a maturing civil society to demand public transparency and accountability of the police are often met with hostility and anger. The paper concludes that further development of the Russian police depends on the role that they will play within the modern Russian state.     

Inside chinese bureaucracy: Civil service reform in the ministry of light industry

Since 1987, mainland Chinese ministries have been experimenting with a western style civil service system. The provisional guidelines published in that year called for the creation of a professional administrative class to be hired by open recruitment at the central and provisional levels of leading state ministries. The article is a micro-analysis of civil service reform in the Ministry of Light Industry and evaluates the first two years of reform in this ministry, which is responsible for supervising roughly twenty percent of China's production of durable consumer goods. The reform process has been gradual and incremental. The reforms were stimulated by the need to modernize China's state-run ministries in order to make them economically competitive with the mainland's growing private market sector. However, the article concludes that the reforms are too limited to make a substantial contribution to this goal.     

Whatever happened to the new public administration?

The “New Public Administration” advocated the infusion of value preferences into areas of administrative practice. In assessing the historical legacy and contemporary applicability of the movement, the authors examine its objectives in view of changing political and administrative commitments. The article criticizes the extent to which institutionalizing administrative values gives way to “value-shifting” when electoral moods change.