The Australian way of government and public sector commercial reform: from a lucky to a clever country?

In recent years, Australia has struggled to remain in the top twenty developed countries, globally. The reality is that Australia's natural resource and agricultural bases no longer serve to provide sustainable national competitive advantage. In the past decade, therefore, government initiatives have aimed to produce a range of industry policies, apparently designed to strengthen the economic base, enhance government and industry responsiveness and productivity, and to attract increased overseas investment. The modernization of Australian public sectors and the adoption of private sector business principles, especially commercialization and privatization, have been critical aspects of competitive reform. This article examines several of the key strategies adopted by Australian governments, especially those designed to enhance national competitive advantage, to determine which strategies may be working, or not working, and why. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of governments as corporate business managers and their ability to respond to commercial realities on a business management, as distinct from an ideological, basis. (© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)     

ADAPTIVE AND MALADAPTIVE RESPONSES OF MANAGERS TO CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS: A STUDY OF AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SECTOR SENIOR EXECUTIVES

This paper examines data collected from senior executives in two Australian government agencies to identify patterns of adaptive and maladaptive responses to change in public sector environments. The conceptual categories of passive maladaptive, active maladaptive and active adaptive responses are all supported by the interview data, with half of the executives expressing predominantly active adaptive responses to external change and uncertainty and half displaying various kinds of passive and active maladaptive responses. The implications of the findings for managers as agents of organizational learning and adaptation in public sector environments are discussed.     

POLITICAL RECRUITMENT BEYOND ELECTIONS: AN EXPLORATION OF THE LINKAGE BETWEEN PATRONAGE,DEMOCRACY, AND DIVERSITY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Flowing out of wider debates regarding representative democracy, the diversity of political institutions has gained salience. Normatively, it is suggested that it is simply unfair for white, middle‐aged males to dominate decision‐making structures. Instead it has been argued that representative diversity can enhance the legitimacy of political institutions and processes, whilst improving the quality and inclusivity of policy‐making. Although most of these arguments have been applied to elected institutions and their bureaucracies, they are also germane in the context of appointments to the boards of public bodies, as the work of these bodies and the decisions made by their board members impacts upon the everyday lives of citizens. Drawing upon original research conducted in the UK, this article argues that the capacity of political actors to make appointments to public boards offers an as yet unrealized democratic potential by offering more opportunities for social engagement and participation in public governance.     

Welfare state structures and the structure of welfare state support: Attitudes towards social spending in Canada, 1993–2000

Abstract.  The comparative welfare state literature contends that different welfare state structures engender different structures of welfare state support. The argument is that social welfare regimes that distribute their benefits selectively tend to produce patterns of support graduated by the likelihood of accessing these selective (or 'targeted') social benefits, especially as indexed by social class. Where benefits are universally distributed, by contrast, support is expected to be more consensual and to cut across class and related cleavages. This article empirically tests this 'interest-based' account and extends it by adding a 'values-based' component. The authors find that the impact of both interests and values – specifically, orientations toward the capitalist system – on welfare state support is conditional on welfare state structures. It is argued that these results help to resolve a paradox in the comparative welfare state literature: strong evidence for differentiation in social welfare support by program type, but weak evidence for differentiation in class effects by program type. Data for the analysis come from the Canadian Election Studies of 1993, 1997 and 2000.     

Identifying Strengths as Fuel for Change: A Conceptual and Theoretical Framework for the Youth Competency Assessment

Juvenile justice lacks an agreed‐upon assessment tool blending strength‐based approaches with rehabilitative and punitive measures. The recently‐piloted Youth Competency Assessment (YCA) is presented as one way to offer a strength‐based tool compatible with traditional risk‐ and problem‐based approaches. YCA's development and piloting processes are described, and the theoretical underpinnings supporting its three domains are summarized and analyzed.     

Women in Fascist Biopolitics: The Case of Olive Hawks

The historical chapters of Susan Brownmiller's Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape deserve close attention. Her view of rape as a crime of violence and aggression has received some corroboration from recent historical .studies. Her view of rape as a property crime in ancient societies can not only be seen in the laws of the Hebrews and Babylonians, which she considers, but in other early legal codes as well. Rape was defined in them not as an offense against the victim, but as a crime against the male under whose authority she lived. Brownmiller perceives a breakthrough in this dismal history of rape laws occurring in thirteenth‐century England with the Statute of Westminster (1285). This interpretation does not hold up under close examination. It can be shown that the first real advance in rape laws took place in the work of church lawyers of the twelfth century who began to distinguish rape from property crimes and include it among crimes of violence against persons. If historians will set aside the angry, polemical statements in Against Our Will, they will find many intriguing ideas which require further investigation and thought.