Population aging in Cuba

"This article presents a brief discussion of the primary aspects associated with aging of the Cuban population, from a demographic, socioeconomic and political perspective. The first issue discussed in the article is how international immigration has contributed to the aging process of the country's population, and the possible causes of this immigration. The author...points out the efforts that the country is making to deal with an accelerated increase in the sixties-plus population...." (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

Public administration in smart city: A bibliometric analysis

The role of the public administration is crucial for the development of smart cities. Several scholars have highlighted the need for greater contributions focused on the relationship between public administration and smart cities. This work aims to map the contributions on the topic highlighting the status of the field in the recent years. A bibliometric analysis was performed on a sample of articles published in business and management journals. The analysis was carried out using the R-studio Bibliometrics package. Results show that research on the topic is still in an initial stage and has several gaps that future studies could fill. The study is useful for scholars because it identifies the topics analyzed by previous research and highlights future research questions that could be investigated. The analysis highlighted the areas studied by scholars on the topic: urban planning, sustainable development, governance approach, Internet of Things and information and communication technologies.     

Public administration reform in Vietnam: problems and prospects

Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Vietnam is an ambitious programme that seeks to implement ‘rule by law’ within a centralized, state management framework. It is a political strategy by the key party and state officials with the aim of institutionalizing and legitimizing the transition to the ‘socialist market economy’ through creating a dependable system of rule‐bound public administration. This programme has received extensive donor support. In the content and trajectory of PAR, external models and technical assistance are influential but the political struggle over control of state resources shapes the process. This is seen in the attempts to constitutionalize the powers of state organs and to distinguish them from the party; to separate owner and manager roles and to replace political with economic criteria in the operation of state owned enterprises; to combat corruption in ‘street level’ decision making; to rationalize the machinery of government; to create a centrally managed, professional civil service; and to reform the system of public finances. In each of these areas, there is resistance to reform proposals and evidence of implementation gaps. In these circumstances, concentration of donor support on the centrally managed PAR programme is a high risk strategy. Continued support for local, ‘bottom‐up’ reform initiatives could help sustain the demand for reform. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

古巴当前形势的几个特点

２００１年古巴形势总的来说是“喜中有忧，喜大于忧”：国民经济继续恢复，全年的经济增长率达到３％。２００１年古巴主要采取了以下稳定措施：重新实行充分就业的政策；优先发展社会计划；开设“公开论坛”；开展社会调查。古美关系出现松动，而俄罗斯单方面宣布关闭在古巴的电子雷达站而使古俄关系变冷。     

Public administration planning in developing countries a Bayesian decision theory approach

Decisionmaking under uncertainty is visualized as a game against nature. The policymaker is the player and has a set of alternatives or strategies from which he desires to choose the most effective. He is confronted with a variety of possible states of nature that may evolve after his decision is made. The key states of nature are identified and their interactive relationship to the strategy options are specified. Important roles in the resulting analysis are played by the probabilities of successful project initiation and implementation. It is shown that neglect of the inherent uncertainty aspects leads to evaluations (benefit-cost ratios) of proposed reforms and projects which can be seriously upward biased.     

Public administration reform for Aboriginal affairs: An institutionalist analysis

Persistent underperformance of public policy and program implementation in Aboriginal affairs is widely recognised. We analysed the results of two case studies of attempted reforms in public administration of Aboriginal primary health care in the Northern Territory, using a framework based on the institutionalist and systemic racism literatures, with the aim of better understanding the sources of implementation failure. Implementation of the agreed reforms was unsuccessful. Contributing factors were as follows: strong recognition of the need for change was not sustained; the seeds of change, present in the form of alternative practices, were not built on; there was a notable absence of sustained political/bureaucratic authorisation; and, interacting with all of these, systemic racism had important consequences and implications. Our framework was useful for making sense of the results. It is clear that reforms in Aboriginal affairs will require government authorities to engage with organisations and communities. We conclude that there are four requirements for improved implementation success: clear recognition of the need for change in ‘business as usual’; sustainable commitment and authorisation; the building of alternative structures and methods to enable effective power sharing (consistent with the requirements of parliamentary democracy); and addressing the impact of systemic racism on decision-making, relationships, and risk management.     

Popular mobilization and disaster management in Cuba

Cuba has effectively implemented a system of popular mobilization and education to prepare people for such natural disasters as hurricanes. Compliance with evacuation orders is impressive. Top priority is attached to saving lives. The country's acclaimed programme accounts for the limited toll of Hurricane Michelle in November 2001, which was the most powerful storm since 1944. Five Cubans died in the storm, which wreaked havoc in Jamaica, Honduras, and Nicaragua. This article reviews recent Cuban experience in disaster preparedness, which was achieved despite material scarcity. Since the prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of increased susceptibility to disasters in future, Cuba's record deserves wide attention. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nuptiality during the 1980s in Cuba

"This study presents an analysis of the demographic characteristics, levels and tendencies followed by Cuban nuptiality during the 1980s. The author uses the data provided by the 1987... National Survey on Human Fertility and data recorded in the last Cuban census, taken in 1981, to evaluate the changes experienced by women of fertile age of various marital status--primarily those in legal marriage and consensual unions--, highlighting the differences between the two [and]...analyzing the two in terms of various socioeconomic attributes...." (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

Public administration,context and innovation: A framework of analysis

Innovation in public administration (PA) has played a pivotal role in building good governance and has attracted significant attention in the academia. The literature on PA innovation is burgeoning; however, this article argues that there is ‘a missing link’ in the extant literature in that the impacts of variation in context on PA innovation have not been sufficiently investigated. This article elaborates the analytical perspectives on the influences of various contexts over PA innovation and the mechanisms through which impacts may take place. Both theoretical and methodological complexities and challenges are apparent in disentangling contextual influences from other factors. The article proposes a research agenda for a context‐orientated comparative analysis of PA innovation and offers a brief illustration regarding contextual differences between China and the European Union in existing studies. The article calls for further studies in this direction.     

公共利益:现代公共管理的本质问题

公共利益与共同利益不是两个等价的概念.共同利益既与共同体利益相关联,也是利益关系的产物.而公共利益的本质属性决定了"公共利益是共同利益,但共同利益却不一定是公共利益".作为一种价值取向,公共利益是一个抽象的概念;当以公共物品和公共服务为主要物质表现形式时,公共利益则是现实的、分层次的和多样化的.这为以公共利益为本质的现代公共管理提供了新的思路和立场.研究立场由管理者向公众的转变客观上也要求建立战略性的公共管理框架.