Regulation Inside Government: Public Interest Justifications and Regulatory Failures

Regulation is normally thought of as government regulation of the private sector, particularly business. However, there is a developing literature on regulation inside government, exploring the ways in which government regulates itself through a range of bodies which set standards for public sector organizations, monitor them and seek to bring about compliance with those standards. Reading across economic theories of business regulation to regulation inside government, this article suggests that the current wave of reform inside the UK public sector implicitly reflects a public interest view of regulation. However, the analogous public interest justification for the regulation of business has been heavily criticized and regulatory failures have been suggested including regulation in the interest of regulated bodies, regulation in the interest of regulators and the high costs of operating regulatory systems.     

The UK BSE Crisis as a Failure of Government

This paper uses the BSE ('mad cow disease') crisis as a case study of the workings of the British core executive during a crisis event. Using the evidence from the Philips Inquiry, which reported on the BSE/vCJD crisis in 2000, the study analyses the patterns of decision making and the structures of institutional and resource dependence. It concludes that the lack of co-ordination between and within institutions and what was acknowledged to be the mismanagement of expert advice raise serious questions about the executive's ability to manage serious crises. The findings concur with scholarship indicating executive fragmentation and lack of accountability. Consecutive British governments have sought to diminish the centre's responsibility for managing public policy without putting an effective alternative mechanism in place.     

Decentralization as a tool for social services management

This paper describes considerations which attempt to identify suitable applications of prototype advanced information technology (IT) systems within United Kingdom (UK) local government.

A ‘task‐analysis’ was undertaken of the activities of the departments within a large UK local authority. The resultant data was then matched, through a theoretical model, with the characteristics of these advanced IT systems. It was concluded that a low risk, low cost system should be implemented within the training function associated with a number of departments.

The empirical study was undertaken within Manchester City Council (MCC) which is considered representative of local government. It is believed, therefore, that many of the issues described in this paper may be of value to other authorities nationally.     

MPA as management education

The central theme of this article is that we have not adequately addressed the question of teaching management. The academic community has done a better job of preparing persons for technical/professional positions in personnel, budgeting and policy analysis. This failure to address the problem of teaching management leaves students (particularly mid-career students) without a foundation for understanding their role as managers. Given that so many MPA students aspire to be managers, it is time we faced this failure and sought means to correct it.

The article suggests a framework to understand and promote public management education. The central argument is to direct management education toward those factors which reflect the public values which underlie the concept of governance. Toward that end public management education must reflect three elements:

1) the political and ethical foundations of publicness,

2) the examination of the practice of management in public organizations, and

3) the skills needed to accomplish the task of management.

An MPA program should reflect all three of these elements if it is to provide an adequate management education. Nevertheless, it must also be recognized that career-long learning is the ultimate goal. Further, management education is but one task of an MPA program. The development of technical competencies in the other aspects of government, such as in budgeting and policy analysis are similarly important goals for MPA programs. A curriculum that accommodates both the management skills and technical competencies needs of students should be our goal.     

Government regulations and FDI: a historical perspective of mexico

This article analyzes the development of foreign investment regulations and their impact on FDI flows in Mexico. The study covers the evolution of sectoral and aggregate investment patterns from the independence period to the 1994 Peso crisis and its aftermath. The pattern followed by FDI in Mexico has paralleled the transformation of the Mexican economy itself, focusing initially on the extractive and agricultural sectors, then on manufacturing activities, and recently on the services sector. Mexico has continuously reformed and modernized its regulatory system in order to adapt to internal political changes and changes in the world economic environment. Recent economic reforms and liberalization of FDI regulations have had a major positive impact on capital inflows, but more needs to be done, especially in the area of financial services in order to achieve a higher level of economic efficiency and to prevent financial breakdowns like the one experienced in 1994.     

Industrial rationalization of a cottage industry: multi-institutional hospital systems

The environment facing hospitals, generally supportive until the 1970s, may now be characterized as complex, turbulent, and constrained. In response to such environmental conditions, hospitals have adopted new strategies and structures. The strategies, described as corporate rationalization, have led away from the traditional structure of freestanding, autonomous hospitals and toward the formation of multi-institutional systems. These systems are designed to provide sufficient strength to cope with the environment, to acquire scarce and valued resources, to allow organizational stability, to achieve organizational purpose, to enable growth and/or survival, and to enhance market position. The impact of multi-hospital systems is viewed in two major areas: acquisition, retention, and utilization of economic and human resources, and organizational, political, and social factors.     

Health and Local Government Partnerships: The Local Government Policy Context

This article explores partnerships between health and local government from the local government perspective; placing developments between the two sectors within the wider context of the Local Government Modernisation agenda. A number of commentators have argued that developments since 1997 – in particular the emphasis on community leadership and the new power of well-being – have provided local authorities with an exciting opportunity to reclaim a more pivotal role in shaping the health agenda at the local level. Such a role would be based on promoting well-being and a good quality of life, in keeping with the social model of health. In the longer run this reclaimed role could produce a shift in what has become the main boundary between health and local government: the health–social care boundary. The article reviews developments in three key areas: the health–social care boundary; the core components of the Local Government Modernisation Agenda; and the relationship between regeneration and health. The paper concludes that although progress has been made in regeneration and health and there is potential in elements of the Modernisation Agenda that these do not equate to a paradigm shift in local government's perspective on health. Instead, the social care boundary continues to dominate local government's vision of health. Central to this picture of modest progress is the substantial barrier to more radical change provided by the performance management frameworks governing both sectors.     

Steering the Community Regulatory System: the Challenges Ahead

This article reviews the process of regulatory reform in the European Union (EU). The main argument is that EU initiatives have been cast in a rather narrow conceptual framework, limited to issues such as simplification and better law-making. Although important, these issues are only a component of the wider task of governing regulation. Therefore I introduce and discuss three proposals for re-casting the debate on EU regulation. First, the focus should be shifted from ‘better law-making’ to ‘better regulatory policy-making’. Second, regulatory management, rather than simplification, should represent the strategic objective of EU institutions. Third, regulatory reform should be accompanied by administrative reform. Consequently, the relative impenetrability of the Commission to administrative reform represents a serious obstacle to regulatory reform.     

Steering the Community Regulatory System: the Challenges Ahead

This article reviews the process of regulatory reform in the European Union (EU). The main argument is that EU initiatives have been cast in a rather narrow conceptual framework, limited to issues such as simplification and better law-making. Although important, these issues are only a component of the wider task of governing regulation. Therefore I introduce and discuss three proposals for re-casting the debate on EU regulation. First, the focus should be shifted from 'better law-making' to 'better regulatory policy-making'. Second, regulatory management, rather than simplification, should represent the strategic objective of EU institutions. Third, regulatory reform should be accompanied by administrative reform. Consequently, the relative impenetrability of the Commission to administrative reform represents a serious obstacle to regulatory reform.     

Caretaker Governments in Czech Politics: What to Do about a Government Crisis

Czech politics suffers from a low durability of most of its governments, and frequent government crises. One of the products of this situation has been the phenomenon of caretaker governments. This article analyses why political elites have resorted to this solution, and discusses how this has reflected an older Czech tradition. Two cases of such governments are analysed in detail. The To?ovský government was characterised by the ability of the Czech president to advance his agenda through this government at a time when the party elites were divided. The Fischer government was characterised by the considerably higher role of parties that shaped and limited the agenda of the cabinet, and the president played a more static role.     

Cabinet Government: An Elusive Ideal?

This article will explore the proposition that cabinet government is dead by examining the different ways in which cabinet government is conceptualized and by suggesting that the lack of precision in the debates has undermined much of the criticism. It will seek to draw the strands of research together in a way that can emphasize how cabinet government has evolved while remaining at the core of government. The article will draw evidence from three countries, Australia, Canada and Britain, in each of which, despite the common heritage, cabinet has evolved in different ways.     

A Bibliography About a Changed Federal Government Workplace

Abstract

This bibliography contains more than 130 hand picked sources that address change in the Federal government workplace, including articles and books by academics and practitioners and reports by Federal agencies including the General Accounting Office and the Office of Personnel management, as well as Congress. The introduction to the bibliography draws on the expertise of three well known authorities in the field, as well as the authors' of the bibliography.     

Conclusion: Is competency management a passing fad?

Is competency management a passing fad; is it a catch‐all term to cover diverse national patterns of development or a symptom of wider changes within bureaucracies? As the papers published here suggest, it is more likely to be a passing fad in Europe than the USA. Competency management addresses rather different agendas in different countries and while it does not embrace as diverse a collection of activities as ‘new public management’, there is substantial range in the issues it does address. European experience suggests competency is more likely to be ephemeral and concerned with repackaging rather than bringing something substantially new to personnel management in the upper reaches of civil services. Without taking too rosy a view of US experience, there may be a stronger case for arguing that contemporary competency management approaches there have brought something new to a longer standing debate in public and private management.     

The Weakness of Strong (and Weak) Ties: Obtaining a Government Job

ABSTRACT

Between merit principles and social contacts, how they facilitate individuals to obtain a government job in the United States remains unsettled. Based on a survey administered via Amazon Mturk, this study finds that merit-based selection constitutes the most significant means to obtain public jobs, particularly so in state and local governments despite of sizeable respondents claiming other venues. The use of social contacts, including both strong and weak ties, shows little advantage on obtaining public employment but proves significant in private organizations. Controlling individuals’ previous job obtaining experience, the study contends that variations on job obtaining methods can be reasonably attributable to institutional distinctiveness that features different rules, procedures and regulations. Merit principles are kept alive in governments, though challenges persist, particularly so in federal government. The study ends up with a discussion of research findings and their implications in HR practices.