DIVERSITY AND DOMINANCE IN THE ARCTIC. ETHNIC RELATIONS IN THE GREENLANDIC BUREAUCRACY

Public bureaucracies are increasingly characterized by employee diversity in terms of ethnicity. Investigating relations between ethnic groups in bureaucracies is therefore important. This article focuses on the particularly interesting case of the Greenlandic administration. Being a former Danish colony, Greenland still recruits bureaucrats from mainland Denmark. These work alongside locally hired employees resulting in an administration with different ethnicities, cultures and languages. The analysis of ethnic relations is based on 28 interviews with bureaucrats of Danish and Greenlandic origin. Even though overall relations are found to be largely harmonious, ethnicity makes a difference. Interviewees describe differences in ethnic traits and behaviour and processes of social categorization. Particularly among Greenlanders, Danes are described as dominant and this dominance is reinforced by co‐variation between ethnicity, language skills and education. Finally, inter‐group relations are found to vary with the numerical balance of ethnic groups in different parts of the bureaucracy.     

REFORMING PUBLIC SERVICES IN THE UK: BRINGING IN THE THIRD SECTOR

In the UK, the government continues its project to reform public services. Earlier projects have focused on the modernization of public sector organizations; in the latest round of reform, New Labour has focused on widening choice and the personalization of services. To this end, the government has been working with Third Sector (TS) organizations to expand their role in shaping, commissioning and delivering public services. The government’s vision is predicated on a normative assertion, that, unlike traditional public sector organizations, TS bodies create public value by being more innovative, are inspired by altruistic aims and values, and have greater commitment to their clients. This paper reviews recent policy and questions whether the government’s policy is flawed, contradictory and risks damaging the attributes of the TS admired by New Labour.     

THE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE IN THE FCO

This article focuses on the Diplomatic Wing of the Foreign and Commonwealth office (FCO) in this country and diplomatic missions overseas. The Overseas Development Administration, though brigaded with the Diplomatic Wing under the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, is substantially a separate organization staffed by Home Civil Servants and with its own Accounting Officer. Though we work closely together, the organizations are distinct.     

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE AND POLITICAL RATIONALITIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE IN THE NETHERLANDS

Multi‐level governance, network governance, and, more recently, experimentalist governance are important analytical frameworks through which to understand democratic governance in the EU. However, these analytical frameworks carry normative assumptions that build on functionalist roots and undervalue political dynamics. This can result in a lack of understanding of the challenges that democratic governance faces in practice. This article proposes the analysis of democratic governance from the perspective of multiple political rationalities to correct such assumptions. It analyses the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in the Netherlands as a paradigmatic case study by showing how governmental, instrumental, and deliberative rationalities are at work in each of the governance elements that it introduces. The article concludes by discussing the implications of a perspective of multiple political rationalities for the understanding and promotion of democratic governance in practice.     

HOW THE REINVENTING GOVERNMENT MOVEMENT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION WAS EXPORTED FROM THE U.S. TO OTHER COUNTRIES

From an academic point of view, Reinventing Government (RG) is a weak book. But the judgment of the academic community leaves with an interesting problem:How can we account for the relative influence that RG ideas have acquired over public management practices and for the enthusiasm with which those ideas have often been received by bureaucratic reformers in many countries? To answer this question, the article develops an analysis that proceeds in two stages. In the first section, I show how RG ideas gained ascendancy in political circles because they altered the terms of discourse about government management and made new kinds of coalitions possible. The second part looks at the structure of the global management consulting industry to show how the consultants who advised the Clinton administration were able to rely on already existing international network of American-based consulting organizations through which they could preach their Reinvention gospel around the globe. The American domination of the world management consulting market; coupled with the growing use by states of external consulting services as a source of advice on management issues, allowed consultants to carry RG ideas into the heart of the policy process.     

DOING BUSINESS IN THE TEMPLE? MANAGERS AND QUALITY ASSURANCE IN THE PUBLIC SERVICES

Quality' is now high on the policy agenda for many of our major public services. This article raises the question of what are the respective roles in securing quality of, on the one hand, professional service deliverers and, on the other, managers. It reviews a range of possible roles for managers and concludes that some of these are likely to be illegitimate and ineffective. Even the more appropriate roles will, however, often prove difficult to establish in practice. The article concludes with an examination of some possible key design features for successful relationships between managers and professional service deliverers. These are examined against the background of specific changes currently underway in the health care and education sectors.     

THE SEPARATION/SPECIFICATION DILEMMA IN CONTRACTING: THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCE IN VICTORIA

This article draws on evidence from case studies of local government contracting in the Australian state of Victoria. It argues that one of the key elements of competitive tendering – the separation of purchasers from providers – undermines another of its essential mechanisms – the specification of services – at the point where previously in‐house services are exposed to competition. The managers who are to become purchasers lack the requisite knowledge of services, which instead resides in the minds of the service delivery staff whose work is to be subjected to competitive processes. Separating purchasing from service‐provision ‘distances’ the staff from the managers, impairing employees’ willingness to share the relevant information. At the same time, the introduction of competition increases the probability that staff will withhold that knowledge, and makes it harder on probity grounds to maintain the type of collaborative relationship which might overcome their reluctance to share it.     

THE DONOUGHMORE REPORT IN RETROSPECT

The Report of the Committee on Ministers' Powers which appeared in 1932, was principally concerned with problems of subordinate legislation and formal administrative adjudication. Against a background of Dicey's views on parliamentary sovereignty and the Rule of Law, the Committee explored a variety of issues and made numerous proposals. In this article an attempt is made to consider why the Committee was appointed and what has happened since 1932. Particular reference is made to the Report of the Committee on Administrative Tribunals and Enquiries which appeared in 1957. The Reports of 1932 and 1957 are important in identifying significant developments in administrative law during this century.     

T. H. GREEN AND THE ETHICS OF SENIOR OFFICIALS IN BRITISH CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

This article is an attempt to move away from microeconomics in the study of administration and to concentrate on British administrative ethics from a philosophical perspective. Thus, ethics is used here not in the sense of the ethics of managers dealing with accounts but as the ‘science’ of ranking moral values. The intention of the article is to examine how political theory can be used to help illustrate the dilemmas of public servants working in a climate which is distinctly hostile to disinterested ideals. The ideas of T. H. Green, the English Idealist philosopher who contributed so much to our understanding of public service, form the basis of the theoretical discussion, and the work of senior officials in Whitehall is the material used for illustrative purposes. Where do the loyalties of civil servants lie? What are their duties and responsibilities to ministers? To whom, for what, and how are civil servants accountable?     

UNDERSTANDING CHANGE IN THE NHS

This paper presents a novel and distinctive approach to the study of change within the NHS. Central to the paper's approach is the view that research on change in health care systems should be processual, comparative, pluralist, and historically based. Guiding such a view is a meta-analytical framework which contends that theoretically sound and practically useful research on change should involve the continuous interplay between ideas about the context , the process , and the content of change together with skill in regulating the relations between the three (Pettigrew 1985a, 1985b). The paper has five sections. Section one examines some of the contemporary pressures for change in the NHS and draws attention to the gap which often exists between statements of strategic intention and their operational implementation. Section two reveals our distinctive analytical approach to the study of service changes and clarifies the theoretical underpinnings of our work. Section three offers an extended critical review of recent research and writing on change in health care organizations. Section four summarizes our findings from the literature review and reaffirms the novelty and significance of our chosen approach. Section five provides an overview.     

THE STUDY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE UNITED STATES

The study of public administration in the United States is large in terms of the number of academic programmes, the range of journal publications, and the number of scholars. Its scholarship attracts attention from all over the globe. At the same time it is a public administration that is clearly embedded in a specific national culture, just as anywhere else. Three of the main challenges include the strong increase of quantitative‐statistical methods, the decline of practitioner authors, and substantive specialization to the extent that generalists' perspectives are losing ground.     

THE VALUE OF THE REMUNERATION OF HIGH CIVIL SERVANTS IN BRITAIN IN THE 20TH CENTURY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

The article traces a large real and comparative decline in the rewards of high civil servants in Great Britain over the 20th century, accelerating since about 1970. It relates this to developments in the market for ‘high quality’ graduates and to changes in public and governmental attitudes which have affected the size, organization and role of the civil service. It discusses possible causes of the decline in top rewards in terms of three explanatory approaches suggested by social scientists – the ‘institutional’, the ‘cultural’, and the views of the ‘Chicago School’. Finally, following an examination of changes in the way senior British civil servants are now recruited and remunerated, it considers possible outcomes in terms of effects on the part they can play in the governmental process.     

A RACE TO THE BOTTOM? EXPLORING VARIATIONS IN EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS IN THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR

This paper presents findings of a study examining state‐voluntary sector inter‐organizational relationships, and the capacity of third‐sector organizations to exercise autonomy over employment matters in this relationship. The aim is to provide insights into an under‐researched area of the inter‐organizational literature, especially in relation to its employment implications. In doing so, it reveals how, as with broader studies of inter‐organizational relations, state‐voluntary sector relations are not homogenous and therefore lead to differing implications for employment. In particular, three Types of voluntary organization emerge, employing, with varying degrees of success, various strategies to protect the terms and conditions of their employees in the face of cost‐cutting pressures from funding bodies. As industrialized countries increasingly turn to the third sector for the provision of social services, it argues that even for the strongest of these organizations, there are long‐term risks for staff morale and therefore quality of care provided by the sector if organizations fail to manage these external pressures from funders.     

CONSULTATIVE PROCESSES IN HEALTH POLICY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: A VIEW FROM THE CENTRE

Health policy at national level is the product of a series of continuous and complex interactions between interest groups operating both inside and outside government. It is generally thought that these consultative processes are closed, elitist and dominated by the prestigious medical specialties. Yet there has been a rapid growth in the number of groups representing various interests, professions and care groups. Drawing on recent examples from the national health service, the paper explores the extent to which consultative processes in health policy have remained closed or have been opened up to new influences. The analysis suggests that consultation within the health department is more pluralistic than is usually appreciated. Also, while the closed, elitist mode of consultation with external interests has been eroded marginally, it remains more or less intact. Nevertheless, the ability of powerful medical interests to get their own way to the exclusion of other interests depends on the resources and sanctions available to other groups and on the particular policy issue. It can no longer just be assumed.