Public–Private Partnerships in Urban Regeneration: Democratic Legitimacy and its Relation with Performance and Trust

Public-private entities set up specifically to manage and implement urban regeneration projects have been observed across several nations. In these urban regeneration partnerships, public and private partners often work together to improve languishing neighbourhoods. One of the core ideas driving the establishment of these partnerships is that, in order to more effectively tackle the challenging regeneration process, these organisations should function at arm's length from the political institutions that oversee them.

A specific question concerning these partnerships is how representative mechanisms work and how the partnership process is linked to traditional representative bodies or in other ways is connected to principles of democratic legitimacy. This paper explores the so-called democratic legitimacy of urban regeneration companies, as a form of public–private partnership, in more detail. It makes a distinction between three types of democratic legitimacy: accountability, voice, and due deliberation. Using material from a survey among managers of urban regeneration companies (URCs) in The Netherlands, this paper examines the impact of these three forms of democratic legitimacy on outcomes and trust of these URCs.

The results show a fairly strong correlation between some criteria of democratic legitimacy, especially due deliberation on the one hand and performance and trust on the other hand.     

CELEBRATING ADVERSITY: INTER‐ORGANIZATIONAL DEPENDENCE AND PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE REPORTING IN THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE

Many aspects of public policy delivery involve complex networks rather than independent agencies. Yet little work has been done to understand the nature of performance measurements in settings where the performance of one agency is heavily dependent on the activities of other agencies. The issue of dependence has implications for operational and reputational risks. Our case study is focused on performance reporting by the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Our findings indicate that performance reporting remains heavily focused on input and process measures with relatively few output or outcome measures. Contrary to expectation, the AFP did not claim credit for success and attribute poor performance to other stakeholders. However, a higher than expected proportion of the dependent performance measures were positively framed.     

Plans, performance information and accountability: the case of Best Value

The current UK government emphasizes the importance of mechanisms of accountability that involve the planning and public reporting of performance. One example of this is the Best Value performance plan. However, there has been little evaluation of the quality of the information provided in this type of document. This paper draws on literature on stakeholding and user needs to identify the data required for accountability. It then assesses whether the plans produced by Best Value pilot authorities in Wales provide appropriate information. The analysis shows that very few of the plans contained the relevant material. Interviews in the pilot authorities highlighted two key reasons for the poor level of data: a lack of performance indicators prior to Best Value and limited staff expertise in performance measurement. The evidence suggests that documents such as performance plans currently make little contribution to the accountability of public organizations.     

Comprehensive Performance Assessment and Public Services Improvement in England? A Case Study of the Benefits Administration Service in Local Government

The purpose of this paper is to independently evaluate the impact of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment regime on one particular public service, namely the provision of council tax and housing benefits distributed by local authorities throughout the course of the regime. This service was assessed in every iteration of the CPA methodologies and it included one of the few key performance indicators (KPIs) where the definition of the performance indicator, the means of collection and the public reporting of its results, remained the same throughout the CPA period between 2002 and 2008.

The findings show that there were considerable and consistent improvements in benefits administration nationally within England and across all of its regions. The paper then investigates a series of propositions. Whether there was any significant variations in the performance of larger as opposed to smaller authorities, or between predominantly rural authority areas and urban authorities or between authorities with different party political control. Finding no significant differences the research suggests implementation of the CPA regime itself appears to have had a catalytic effect upon the performance of the benefit administration services within local authorities throughout this period. The paper therefore concludes with a brief discussion as to whether the findings support the theoretical position of proponents of neo-institutionalism isomorphism or more traditional rational actor theories of public choice.     

Exploring Contracts as Reinvented Institutions in the Danish Public Sector

Contracts have been on the agenda in public sector reform in most OECD countries. In Denmark, contracts have been considered as one of the most important tools in reorganizing the public sector. The article examines the implementation of contract agencies in central government in Denmark during the 1990s. First, a review of contractual theory distinguishes between 'hard' and 'soft' contracting. Second, recent developments in contracting in Denmark are examined, and three phases of contract agencies are identified. Contracts have been supported by other tools for reporting on performance like annual reports. Third, it is argued that Denmark has put co-operation and negotiation before more strict management and control. The Danish experience can be seen as an alternative to the principal-agent model. The article finishes by discussing the pros and cons of the Danish approach, and suggests that although the pragmatic approach has merits, it may lead to problems in the future concerning the credibility of the whole project.     

Community Involvement in Rural Regeneration Partnerships: Exploring the Rural Dimension

This paper is about the involvement of local communities in rural regeneration and area development partnerships. In particular it asks questions about the extent to which there are distinctive rural elements to this which differentiate and counterpoise it to such involvement in urban areas. The paper concludes that, whilst there are some commonalities between such involvement across urban and rural communities, there are also challenges particular to rural areas. These are the spatial features of rural areas, the paucity of human capital in rural communities and a much lower resource level than in urban communities. The paper concludes that these challenges can only be met effectively in rural areas where there is strong local voluntary and community sector infrastructure to support community involvement in rural regeneration partnerships.     

Public Policy in the Party City: The Spectacle of Culture,Gender, and Locality

The article explores the bidding process for the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) award, an aspect of local regeneration policy reliant upon a specific conception of culture. The process is examined in terms of changes in urban layout, manifestations of cultural and community identity, media representations, and the spectacle of culture, gender, and locality. The process is viewed as an urban managerialist project, driven by private and public sector elites in pursuit of economic rather than cultural goals. A narrow and particular view of culture was employed in the bidding process to achieve essentially managerial goals, and cut adrift from significant issues of gender, identity, and class. “Culture,” as conceived within the ECOC process, is viewed as a policy product of local government, regeneration partnerships, government agencies, and business interests, in contrast to culture as a way of life or lived urban experience. As an elite process, the voices of local culture were largely excluded.     

Viability of Municipal Companies in the Provision of Urban Infrastructure Services

This article discusses the organisational and institutional model of municipal company in the provision of urban infrastructure services in Portugal. The law recently enacted which defined the legal regime for the local business sector, as well as the growing awareness that the new public management models represent great advantages in comparison with the bureaucratic ones that characterise the traditional public administration, make this a current and relevant issue. For the purpose of investigating the viability of this provision model, this research encompasses three complementary analyses. First, the results obtained from a nationwide questionnaire on the features of municipal companies are analysed. Second, a SWOT matrix is constructed to examine the model of municipal company and, third, the total factor productivity (TFP) of these organisations is determined using the index number theory, in order to evaluate their performance and compare it with that of the traditional bureaucratic models. Although the concept of municipal company is based on noble principles and, in theory, it shows advantages compared to other means of service provision, this research points to very negative results regarding the model and leads to the conclusion that the aimed benefits are not achieved in Portugal. There are many causes contributing to this effect, but the political patronage of these companies and the lack of technical competence are presumably two of the most significant ones.     

Exploring the Relationship between Operational and Financial Indicators: The Case of Water and Sewer Utilities

ABSTRACT

There is debate in the literature on whether or not general management principles are applicable to the study and practice of public administration. This research responds by exploring how local officials manage the performance of public services with private good characteristics, where general management principles could be embraced for service delivery. The relationship between operational and financial indicators is explored within the functional areas of water and sewer, with the hypothesis that operational outcomes impact financial outcomes similar to private enterprises. Because the findings do not support this hypothesis, the authors conclude that general management principles may not be applicable to all forms of administration given that public cannot be removed from the management of public services even with private good characteristics.     

Suicide and the media. Part III: Theoretical issues

The body of evidence suggests that there is a causal association between nonfictional media reporting of suicide (in newspapers, on television, and in books) and actual suicide, and that there may be one between fictional media portrayal (in film and television, in music, and in plays) and actual suicide. This finding has been explained by social learning theory. The majority of studies upon which this finding is based fall into the media "effects tradition," which has been criticized for its positivist-like approach that fails to take into account of media content or the capacity of audiences to make meaning out of messages. A cultural studies approach that relies on discourse and frame analyses to explore meanings, and that qualitatively examines the multiple meanings that audiences give to media messages, could complement the effects tradition. Together, these approaches have the potential to clarify the notion of what constitutes responsible reporting of suicide, and to broaden the framework for evaluating media performance.     

Performance Regimes—The Institutional Context of Performance Policies

Performance measurement, targeting, reporting and managing of public services has spread across jurisdictions in recent years. The most usual stance adopted by governments in developing performance policies has been shaped by principal-agent theory and a hierarchy of principal-agent relationships from core executive to service delivery. Such notions have been challenged from several directions, both in theory and empirically. Writers on accountability and those analyzing the “audit explosion” and the growth of “regulation inside government” have pointed to the way in which multiple actors and accountabilities have grown. Drawing on these and other sources this article develops a “performance regimes” perspective that offers a heuristic analytical framework of the main groups of institutional actors who can (but do not always) attempt to shape or steer the performance of service delivery agencies. The aim is to create a framework that can be applied comparatively to study changes in total performance regimes over time and between jurisdictions and sectors.     

Shared services in Brazilian local government: Urban development in small counties

In this article we break new ground by investigating cooperative agreements in urban development services, which include urban development, housing and sanitation for small local governments in Brazil (i.e., those with fewer than 20,000 residents in 2013–15). We find that public expenditure on urban development can be explained by both horizontal (intermunicipal cooperation) and vertical (public–public partnerships) cooperation. Regarding the impact of public sector cooperation on public expenditure, our results show that housing and sanitation services are less costly under intermunicipal cooperation. By contrast, urban development services are less costly when local authorities do not cooperate with other public entities. For public–public partnerships (with the state or federal government) cooperation leads to an increase in public funding, which implies that cooperative agreements might not lead to lower public expenditure. The findings in this article provide useful empirical insights into the administrative reorganization of Brazilian local government.     

STRENGTHENING THE LINK BETWEEN PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND DECISION MAKING

Many public agencies now face dual pressures to meet external accountability demands on one hand, and improve their internal performance on the other. This begs the question whether the demands that are made on public agencies to externally report on their performance have a limited or wide ranging impact on the utilization of performance indicators (PIs) for internal improvements. This article addresses this question via a small group of public agencies and public accountability authorities in Australia. It also examines the main factors that affect the use of PIs for decision making. The evidence suggests that the agencies use PIs more for meeting external reporting requirements than for achieving internal improvements. Various constraints on the use of PIs were identified, mainly technical problems, and to a lesser extent, political and organizational issues.     

Inequality,discrimination, and service delivery: A recapitulation for the public administrator

The equitable provision of urban public services has begun to receive increased attention from researchers, administrators, and the courts. Recent research has questioned the view that minority and low-income groups are systematically deprived in the distribution of public services, e.g. police and fire services, libraries, street quality and maintenance, and parks and recreational facilities. This paper reviews empirical studies in urban service distribution and judicial responses to municipal service claims. The research reveals that discimination in service delivery does exist. However, it is difficult to determine empirically in larger cities if a consistent pattern of discrimination exists and whether or not it bears a significant relationship to race or class. Discrimination and inequality on the basis of race has been subject to meticulous judicial prowess benefitting at one time or another the citizen and the municipality. The courts are requiring overwhelming statistical documentation to substantiate racial discrimination in the provision of urban public services.     

MULTI‐LAYERED ACCOUNTABILITY. PERFORMANCE‐BASED FUNDING OF UNIVERSITIES

In most Western countries there has been an increasing demand for new and different types of audit, evaluation and reporting systems that reveal the output of public sector organizations ( Pollitt and Bouckaert 2000 ). Quality assessments have had a profound impact on the funding of university research, most visibly in the UK. However, the relationship between qualitative and quantitative indicators of research performance has been an ongoing source of debate ( Bence and Oppenheim 2004 ). By exploring four different types of accountability relations, this paper investigates different stakeholders' perceptions of whether or not performance funding increases accountability and transparency, and poses the following questions: Does performance funding result in high accountability and high transparency? Does high accountability imply high transparency? Does high transparency lead to low accountability? Three main empirical sources have been utilized: a comprehensive survey of faculty at Norwegian higher education institutions, a stakeholder survey, and data from case studies of four universities.     

Public Administration Dilemmas: An Analysis of Teachers’ Perceptions of the Effects of Performance Evaluation in Post-Colonial South Africa

The adoption of the principles of New Public Management by many governments across the world was invariably accompanied by the implementation of performance evaluation. It is generally accepted that performance evaluation optimizes the performance of workers. As part of a broader investigation which employed a mixed methods approach, the study used data from six interviews with high school principals and 100 survey questionnaires with purposively selected high school teachers in uMgungundlovu District of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In the analysis of this data, the paper demonstrates that beyond the obvious benefits of performance evaluation such as improvement in performance, there are also unintended consequences such as a narrow focus on measured output, teacher burnout, and falsification of information in order to maximize credit or to avoid punishment. This study illustrates the understandings of high school educators in uMgungundlovu District of the effects of performance evaluation. The findings have important implications for public administration and scholars alike.     

The Effects of 'High Commitment' HRM Practices on Employee Attitude: The Views of Public Sector Workers

Although there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating positive effects of 'high commitment' HRM practices on organizational performance, there is less evidence evaluating their effects on individual workers, especially within the public sector. Therefore the implications of applying 'high commitment' practices in the public sector needs to be considered. This paper seeks to address this gap by reporting the results of a staff survey and follow-up interviews conducted on a cross-section of  local government employees. The results showed that eight of the ten 'high commitment' practices had significant effects on worker attitudes. The results are discussed in light of HRM theory together with the implications for public sector managers.     

Public–private efficiency in the delivery of services of general economic interest: The case of urban transport

This paper studies urban transport, a public service with extensive initiatives towards deregulation and privatisation throughout the European Union and in other developed and developing countries. The relative merits of deregulation, public or private provision and the implications of different policies for the performance of public services have become important issues. A crucial question is what type of operating and regulatory environment is best suited to stimulate efficiency in public service delivery. This paper analyses specifically the effect of privatisation and deregulation on the technical efficiency of bus services in 73 cities, in order to compare performance in cities with bus services provided by public operators, private operators, both types simultaneously or in which the service is deregulated. The behaviour of the different types of operators analysed in this paper shows that competition – total or partial – is effective in controlling costs.     

Progrssive Regrimes, Partnerships and the Involvement of Local Communities: A Framework for Evaluation

This paper examines the nature of community involvement in urban politics as it is played out through regeneration partnerships. At a theoretical level, it explores the potential for a community dimension to local governance, that is, a strategic influence for communities within local power structures. It is argued that the nature of involvement can be explicated by considering three concepts: power (as expressed by urban regime theory), participation and partnership. The paper explores these three broad themes and then focuses on the particular issues pertaining to community involvement in partnership working. Building on this frame-work, the paper develops a model – a 'wheel of involvement'– for analysing the effectiveness of community involvement in regeneration partnerships. This model enables the effectiveness of involvement to be 'quantified by the use of a simple questionnaire survey. It provides a tool for academic researchers and practitioners concerned with evaluating partnerships to begin to explore the quality and level of community involvement in the process of urban renewal. The results of an analysis of two regeneration partnerships are presented as an illustration of the efficacy of the evaluative technique.