Positive attributes of state direct order mandates: A case study of planning mandates in California

States closely regulate the policies of their local units of government through the imposition of direct order mandates. The general literature on state as well as federal mandate activities suggests that such regulations seriously constrain local autonomy and add to local financial burdens. A case study of the application of California's planning mandates in a sample of small nonmetropolitan cities suggests that major programmatic mandates are not always restrictive; mandates can be beneficial by empowering local officials.     

Social housing under the Workers’ Party government: an analysis of the private sector in Brazil

This article examines the patterns of government intervention in social housing in Brazil to analyse the role of the private sector in the elaboration and implementation of social housing policies during the Workers’ Party government. It draws on case study research, and I examine areas which impact on the way social housing has been implemented since 2003 to study the concentration of decision power the private construction sector has on social housing policymaking, which sets the tone of government intervention on social housing. I argue this was part of the Workers’ Party’s approach to neoliberal policies in a more moderated style, a type of intervention repeated on numerous occasions under previous administrations. This article concludes by noting the prominent role of the private sector in social housing developments.     

Liberal Democracy in Africa: A Socialist-Revisionist Perspective

South Africa's constitution enshrines the right to adequate housing, and policy since 1994 has attempted to address this issue. However, realities of poverty, rapid urbanization and limited resources for local authorities undermine the state's ability to meet housing needs. This article presents a case study from Msunduzi Municipality (formerly Pietermaritzburg) to evaluate state policy in the urban low-cost housing sector, particularly in terms of the needs of female-headed households. While subsidized housing allocation has successfully reached female-headed households, and recent policy documents acknowledge gendered housing needs, the situation on the ground remains problematic. Gender-based social and economic inequalities persist, and new government-subsidized housing suffers problems including inappropriate location, poor housing quality, and inadequate protection of tenure security. Applying a gender lens to housing highlights shortcomings in South African housing policy, while applying a housing lens to examine gender inequality demonstrates limitations to the transformative potential of gender mainstreaming in this sector.     

Strategic communication by regulatory agencies as a form of reputation management: A strategic agenda

This article develops a strategic agenda concerning regulatory agencies' strategic communication in light of the reputation literature. It highlights the main strands in this literature, presents the fundamental findings discovered so far, responds to the critiques that have recently surfaced, and offers guidance about where scholarship on strategic communication might most profitably head. The critiques discussed here centre on two aspects: (i) the claim that an agency's communication choices are to some extent driven by the distinctive logic of the media rather than by reputational concerns, and (ii) the argument that strategic communication provides only short-term solutions to emerging threats and is therefore overemphasized in the literature. Future agendas include, for example, the selection of audience segmentation strategies, and the management of competing and even contradictory communication for segmented audiences when agencies enjoy exclusive jurisdiction, as opposed to cases in which other agencies share the same stage.     

Note – Walking on Solid Ground: A Replication Study of ‘Housing Health and Happiness’

This note summarises our replication study ‘Housing, Health, and Happiness’, henceforth HHH2009, which constitutes an important paper in the literature of housing and slum upgrading. The original authors conduct a quasi-experimental impact evaluation of ‘Piso Firme’, an intervention that replaced in-house dirt floors with cement in Mexico. We conduct a Pure Replication (PR), a Measurement and Estimation Analysis (MEA), and a Theory of Change Analysis (TCA). In our PR, we did not find any major discrepancy with the original study. In the MEA, we generally find the results to be strongly robust to different types of alternative analysis. Finally, in TCA we explore a dimension that was not reported on the published version of the study and found that households with high initial levels of cement-floor coverage benefitted significantly less from Piso Firme’s intervention. These findings are discussed in greater detail on International Initiative for Impact Evaluation’s (3ie) working paper version.     

Insulation by administration: the neutralization of competing interests in a rent control program

Many attempted solutions to the rental housing shortage in urban areas have resulted either in deterioration of the housing stock or the abandonment of the proposed solutions with a consequent fundamental change in the nature of the community. The competing interests--landlords, tenants, banks, taxpayer groups, social reform groups--cannot afford to have any single interest dominate the program. The administrative processes of rent control programs become the focus of conflict between these irreconcilable forces. The rent control program in Brookline avoids much of the problem by a calculated policy to neutralize the competing interests. The history of the program which describes the development of this policy is divided into three parts: (1) 1970-73 when conflict between the groups all but destroyed the program and produced various adjustments in it; (2) 1972-75 when a definite policy of neutralization was followed by a new board chairperson and a new director-counsel; and (3) 1975-77 when the policy was continued under a new chairperson (with the same director-counsel) who faced a very different board membership. Since a majority of Brookline voters and some 75% of its population are tenants, this policy provides an opportunity to discuss a normative theory of democracy as majority rule and the way it relates to the solution of pressing social problems.     

Fezzes in the river: identity politics and European diplomacy in the Middle East on the eve of World War II

This article analyzes how the Poles and Jews who disappeared from the western Ukrainian city of L'viv as a result of the Second World War are remembered in the city today. It examines a range of commemorative practices, from monuments and museums to themed cafes and literature, and analyzes how these practices interact to produce competing mnemonic narratives. In this respect, the article argues for an understanding of the city as a complex text consisting of a diverse range of mutually interdependent mnemonic media produced by a range of actors. The article focuses in particular on the ways in which Ukrainian nationalist narratives interact with the memory of the city's “lost others.” The article also seeks to understand L'viv's memory culture through comparison with a range of Polish cities that have faced similar problems with commemorating vanished communities, but have witnessed a deeper recognition of these communities than has been the case in L'viv. The article proposes reasons for the divergences between the memory cultures of L'viv and that found in Polish cities, and attempts to outline the gradual processes by which L'viv's Polish and Jewish pasts might become more widely integrated into the city's memory culture.     

The changing roles of free economic zones in development: A comparative analysis of capitalist and socialist cases in East Asia

Free economic zones (FEZs) play important roles in industrialization and economic development of both capitalist and socialist countries in various regions of the world, and thus have become a major subject of study in the development literature. Theoretical debate and empirical analysis have focused narrowly on the positive and negative economic effects of export processing zones (EPZs) in capitalist Third World countries, without giving sufficient consideration to why, when, and how different types of FEZs in both capitalist and socialist economies adapt their roles in achieving development objectives under changing international and domestic conditions. In this article, I systematically compare the dynamic development roles of three FEZs in two different systems—the state capitalist economies of Taiwan and South Korea and the reforming socialist economy of China—during 1966–1990. The comparative findings are interpreted from competing and complementary perspectives of major development theories. Finally, I use the comparative evidence to refine a lifecycle model of the evolution and prospect of EPZs in capitalist newly industrializing countries, and suggest an alternative scenario for FEZs in socialist economies. Xiangming Chen is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, affiliated with the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago, and a research fellow at the IC² Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. His current research focuses on the interface between urban and economic development from a comparative perspective, with a central focus on China. He has recently published several papers on urbanization, urban housing reform, commodity chains, and regional development in China in a number of social science journals and edited books.     

At the Commission's Discretion: Cartelbusting and Fining Infringements Under the EU's Restrictive Practices Policy

Although the last decade has seen an increased interest from political science in many aspects of EU competition policy the issue of cartelbusting has been almost totally neglected. This is a curious situation given that this remains by far the major aspect of the European Commission's activities in the competition arena. By merging the available, albeit extremely limited, public administration and policy studies literature with the legal literature the article endeavours to begin to redress the balance by examining the EU's restrictive practices policy. It pays particular attention to the European Commission and its Directorate General responsible for com-petition policy (DGIV) and their activities in their enduring war against cartels. At its core this article analyses the Commission's quasi-judicial authority in relation to cartel arrangements, identifies the extent to which the decision-making process is open to substantial degrees of administrative discretion within DGIV and makes specific reference to its policy on fining infringements.     

Party penetration of society in Hong Kong: The role of mutual aid committees and political parties

Party penetration of society can be illuminated by the study of how political parties in Hong Kong have been infiltrating Mutual Aid Committees (MACs), which are housing organisations in private and public buildings. While “administrative absorption of politics” was viewed as a hallmark of Hong Kong under British rule during the 1970s, political penetration of local administration has emerged as the feature of the body politic since the 1990s. The colonial government's neglect of the MACs in the 1990s has been inherited by the post‐colonial administration since the transfer of Hong Kong's sovereignty in 1997. On the other hand, some MACs have penetrated political parties because they find that the government has swept them under the carpet and that parties can deliver various constituent services. This interpenetration of parties and MACs is an enduring feature of grassroots politics in Hong Kong today.     

The changing dynamics of policy experiment in Singapore: does the 2011 general election make a difference?

The city-state of Singapore is proactive in harnessing policy experimentation to incubate innovations, transfer knowledge and facilitate collaborations across different public sectors. Given the country’s strong knack for pragmatism, international practices and lessons are usually first tested and adapted in policy experiments before scaling up to nationwide policies. Singapore’s practice of policy experimentation, however, has also demonstrated evolution over time. This article reviews the evolving role of experimentation in Singapore’s policy decision-making and implementation, and analyses pilot programmes in public housing to elicit the key attributes and commonalities of its policy experiments. It finds that policy experiments have been increasingly used after the 2011 general election, which witnessed a radical political rebalancing in Singapore’s governance history. Pilot projects have thus transformed from a utilitarian to citizen-centric, design-thinking approach after 2011. Pilot programmes are used for multiple purposes in policy innovations, among which civil service mentoring, knowledge transfer and cross-boundary collaboration are the values primarily pursued. The article discusses the contributions of the findings to the literature and policy implications for practitioners.     

Biased,not blind: An experimental test of self‐serving biases in service users’ evaluations of performance information

Based on literature about motivated reasoning, this article proposes that choosing a public service provider from among competing options may bias service users in a positive direction when evaluating the performance of their chosen provider. Users are expected to defend their choice through processes of goal reprioritization, meaning that they will alter the weight they assign to given pieces of information depending on the (in)convenience of that information. This article uses nine experimental studies to test this expectation on students who had recently chosen to study at one university instead of competing universities. As expected, findings show signs of biases in students’ evaluations, but the biases are small and not consistently significant. Thus, prior research may have been too pessimistic regarding the general potential of performance information in the public sector.     

PUBLIC MANAGEMENT REFORM IN THE UK AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

It is often assumed in the literature on public management reforms that radical changes in values, work and organization have occurred or are under way. In this paper our aim is to raise questions about this account. Focusing on three services in the UK, each dominated by organized professions – health care, housing, and social services – significant variations in the effectiveness of reforms are noted. The available research also suggests that these outcomes have been inversely proportional to the efforts expended on introducing new management practices. The most radical changes have been in housing, where, paradoxically, successive UK governments focused least attention. By contrast, in health and social services, management restructuring has been less effective, despite the greater resources devoted to it. This variation is attributed to professional values and institutions, against which reforms were directed, and the extent to which different groups became locked either into strategies of resistance or accommodation.     

“Name the Republic that was joined to Russia in 2014:” Russia’s New Civics and History Test for Migrants

This article examines Russia’s civics and history test, which has been mandatory, since January 2015, for millions of labor migrants applying for a work permit. An analysis of the test’s content and of the context in which it was adopted provides a strong case to study how autocracies can use civics tests as instruments of control. Specifically, I argue that the test must be understood in light of Russia’s state-sponsored nationalism, latent xenophobic sentiments, and its increasingly restrictive and incoherent migration policy. Not only are many questions irrelevant or disconnected from migrants’ everyday concerns: their personal experiences of paying bribes, obtaining fake certificates, or being harassed by the police often contradict the correct answers on the exam. While it is doubtful that this test – along with several other new requirements imposed on migrants – will dissuade foreign laborers to seek employment in Russia, it is bound to make them even more vulnerable to bribes.     

The Geography of Warscape

This article elaborates a heuristic approach to understanding the geography of warscape from a theoretically informed perspective. It argues that agency in protracted civil war emerges at the ambiguous interface of different, competing systems of power and authority. In order to account for the multiple trajectories of threat and opportunity that warscapes offer to different social actors and at different times and places, the article proposes the concept of ‘governable order’, which is derived from a critical review of the literature on ‘social navigation’ and ‘governable space(s)’. The usefulness of combining these three concepts is illustrated by two empirical vignettes. They demonstrate the dynamics of governable spaces in distinct phases of the Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka civil wars. The two cases highlight the temporal and territorial fluidity of governable spaces, which both constrain and enable warscape inhabitants' agency.     

Confounded but Complacent: Accounting for How the State Sees Responses to Its Housing Intervention in Johannesburg

Abstract

The South African state’s ‘will to improve’ poor people’s lives through free home-ownership is unsettled by subsequent unauthorised housing usage and adaptions. Despite insight into and empathy for these non-compliant activities amongst some state housing practitioners, the dominant state position is to denounce them without analysing their drivers and significance. This position is enabled by the state’s selective use of knowledge, confidence in the housing project as is, and avoidance of discomforting signals. The ‘will to improve’ is not matched by a deep ‘will to know’, in part because the capacity to act under difficult circumstances is argued to depend on a form of ‘not knowing’.     

Can Social Innovations in Housing Save Public Money? The Case of Slovakia

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with research into the innovative provision of public services by the non-governmental organizations in the field of housing. The paper describes the legislation of the housing system in Slovakia and aims to analyse innovation in social housing provision. The paper contributes to the knowledge on innovative social housing solutions provided by non-governmental organizations. The use of cost benefit analysis reveals the benefits of innovation in housing provision by an internationally awarded organization ETP Slovakia. The analysis proves the government´s possible savings of public expenditures if it would decide to support the innovative approach in social housing provision.     

MANAGERIAL GOALS IN A PERFORMANCE‐DRIVEN SYSTEM: THEORY AND EMPIRICAL TESTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Factors influencing managerial goals and decision‐making processes have been debated for decades among public administration scholars. Previous literature has explained goal setting through theories of performance gaps, bureaucratic control, and isomorphic rationality. However, there exists no direct empirical test of these theories to determine which theoretical expectation may have more or less weight with managers when setting organizational goals. Using an original survey of university presidents, this study tests how public managers prioritize competing performance goals. Findings suggest that the goal setting decisions of these public managers is primarily driven by political control mechanisms.     

INDIVIDUALIZATION AND PUBLIC SECTOR LEADERSHIP

This is a conceptual paper whose aim is to relate the development of ‘individualization’ ( Beck and Beck‐Gernsheim 2002 ) to organizational leadership. It does this by examining individualization alongside the implicit assumption on which orthodox approaches to leadership are founded, namely that leadership is an individualized phenomenon. Despite the expanding literature on these topics, particularly that on leadership, these concepts have not been examined in relation to one another. This paper seeks to do this in two ways. Firstly, it highlights the increased attention given to leadership in the UK public sector, locating leadership as a continuation of public sector managerialism. Secondly, it discusses the development of the trend of individualization more broadly. The paper’s main discussion focuses on leadership as an individual activity and of the consequences of that approach. In particular, it argues that individualized leadership presents a restrictive perspective which does not allow for exploration of a broader range of leadership approaches, particularly that of distributed leadership, which have especial relevance for public sector organizations.