“Civic discovery” as a rhetorical strategy

Much research in the field of public management is distinguished by its rejection of the politics-administration dichotomy and its emphasis on the public manager's responsibility for political management. By rejecting the dichotomy, however, scholars in public management have reopened debate over an old question: Why is it right for public managers to exercise political power in the policymaking process? It is argued that the dichotomy served as a rhetorical strategy for allaying public concern about bureaucratic power, and that public management scholars must now invent a new strategy to take its place. This article evaluates one strategy, proposed by Moore and Reich, which is premised on the idea that managers may legitimize the exercise of discretion by showing it to be consistent with a mandate that is produced through a fair process of deliberation. It is argued that the new strategy may overestimate the ability to build mandates, the ability to build deliberative processes that are manifestly fair, and the willingness of dissentient citizens to defer to such mandates. The new strategy will also bind public managers to a demonstration of neutrality not unlike that imposed by the politics-administration dichotomy.     

Hard Lessons from Hard Times: Reconsidering and Reorienting the “Managing Decline” Literature

Does the public administration research from the late 1970s and 1980s on managing decline contain useful lessons for today's Great Recession? Do these studies serve our current research needs? Why has decline continued to be a major focus of research in generic management, but not in public administration? The answers to these questions give some clues as to a possible new, revitalized research agenda for our field. Whereas public administration often viewed organizational decline as a self‐contained set of problems requiring remedial action, generic management and sociology research on decline tended to view the topic as part of organizational phases and life cycles, linking decline to growth, stability, and change. Viewing decline as part of the organizational life cycle encourages researchers to take a longer view of organizations and their management, and thus its orientation is more strategic than reactive. Three areas of decline studies are identified as relevant irrespective of sector: (1) implications of decline for human resources management, (2) effects of decline on organization structure and design, (3) the relation of strategy and decline.     

Self‐interest in new wrapping: “Appeal to the public interest” as a topos in lobbying

This article explores public affairs and lobbying strategies that make public appeals beyond organizational self‐interest and instead focus on appeals to the public interest. While research has highlighted such appeals as a staple for lobbying campaigns, there is scant research exploring the communicative construction of this notion. Thus, this article uses the rhetorical concept of topos to explore how lobbyists attempt to fuse their private interests with a broader appeal to what is best for society. In particular, we discuss how different types of organizations have different rhetorical opportunities to ground their arguments. Finally, we discuss the democratic implications of appeals to the public interest as a standard lobbying strategy.     

Providing Adequate Educational Funding: A State–by–State Analysis of Expenditure Needs

While school finance research and litigation has traditionally focused on the equity of funding across school districts, courts and policy makers are increasingly addressing the adequacy of educational resources. This article reviews recent developments in adequacy research and estimates the additional expenditures required to achieve adequacy across states. Using the cost–adjusted national median of current per–pupil expenditures as a benchmark for adequacy, the results suggest that additional spending of $15.6–18.5 billion is needed nationally to reach the benchmark in all districts. The additional spending would be concentrated in a small number of states, particularly in urban and urban fringe districts.     

“Better Retail,Better World”: A commentary on British retailers and the sustainable development goals

The British Retail Consortium's Better Retail, Better World initiative launched in 2018 and looks to mobilise the retail industry to make a leading contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This short commentary paper outlines the features of this initiative and offers some reflections on some of the challenges British retailers seem likely to face in looking to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. These challenges include the strategic prioritisation of SDGs, issues of measurement and metrics, communicating the retailers' position on the SDGs to consumers and the stakeholders, the retailers' financial commitment to the SDGs within a difficult trading environment, and fundamental tensions between sustainability and economic growth.     

From “New Institutionalism” to “Institutional Processualism”: Advancing Knowledge about Public Management Policy Change

Research on public management reform has taken a decidedly disciplinary turn. Since the late 1990s, analytical issues are less often framed in terms of the New Public Management. As part of the disciplinary turn, much recent research on public management reform is highly influenced by the three new institutionalisms. However, these studies have implicitly been challenged by a competing research program on public management reform that is emphatically processual in its theoretical foundations. This article develops the challenge in a more explicit fashion. It provides a theoretical restatement of the competing “institutional processualist” research program and compares its substantive findings with those drawn from the neoinstitutionalisms. The implications of this debate about public management reform for comparative historical analysis and neoinstitutional theories are discussed.     

Fighting Poverty with Mobility: A Normative Policy Analysis1

Concentrated urban poverty is America's deepest social problem. Eliminating it stands as our nation's greatest challenge. In this article I analyze from a normative perspective antipoverty policies that attempt to address this problem via “mobility,” that is, policies that attempt to disperse the urban poor to suburban locations. I find these policies to be normatively problematic on two grounds: the level coercion experienced by (and the corresponding lack of free choice given) a vulnerable population and the undesirable effects (in the current context of American urban development) caused by failing to regard established neighborhoods as stable communities. The results of this analysis indicate strongly the need to generate increased levels of economic activity in America's inner cities, and I suggest that more research on this issue be conducted with an eye toward formulating and implementing a comprehensive strategy to bring about inner-city revitalization.     

“Modernizing Government”: Mapping Global Public Policy Networks

Public sector reform is a key policy area, driven by global public policy networks. Research on these networks has been inductive, highlighting organizations like the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD). This article examines “virtual policy networks” (VPNs) on the Web. Using IssueCrawler, we conduct a hyperlink analysis that permits us to map seven VPNs. The first network mapped the hyperlinks of 91 organizations identified through inductive methods. The hypothesis that the virtual network would include all actors identified in the inductive approach was refuted. The other six networks focused on: market mechanisms, open government, performance, public employment, reform, and restructuring. Among the findings, the U.S. government is prominent in the first three, while international organizations dominate the others. VPN rankings show that the World Bank dominates the OECD. When the inductive research is blended with the VPN research, the OECD's prominence increases, and we see the importance of market mechanisms and reform VPNs as pillars of globalization.     

政策性城市新移民社会资本对个体健康的影响研究--基于成都市的调查

基于社会资本理论,系统分析成都市政策性城市新移民与城市本地居民的健康相关社会资本现状。结果表明,政策性城市新移民的总体社会资本得分和单项社会资本得分均低于城市本地居民,且差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。在此基础上,通过开展政策性城市新移民的社会资本对健康的影响因素分析,构建社会资本影响健康的作用路径模型,提出了提升政策性城市新移民健康相关社会资本的建议,为制定提高政策性城市新移民健康水平的政策提供参考依据。     

Transdisciplinary public leadership theory: Between the extremes of “traditional public administration” and “new public management”

The 21st century public organization is faced with complex problems, informed stakeholders, and information flows, which necessitate a corresponding open system view of leadership. The traditional notions of public administration and new public management had been structured by strict bureaucratic rules and managerial flexibility, respectively. This paper begins by theorizing two hypothetical constructs (helicopter and deadbeat leadership), which engage in extreme micromanagement/surveillance and negligence/indifference, respectively. Those form basis for designing an optimal (transdisciplinary) leadership, which forges synergistic link between leaders, subordinates, and external actors in codesigning objectives and strategies to address societal problems. Strategies to promote transdisciplinary leadership are discussed.     

Attitudes Toward “Fracking”: Perceived and Actual Geographic Proximity

Prior surveys have sought to gauge American public opinion toward shale gas development. Research on environmental hazards has produced conflicting findings related to the role of proximity in predicting attitudes. This study analyzes how perceived and actual proximity to active shale gas development in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas predicts individual preferences for moratoria. We implement a conditionally parametric probit, which accounts for geographic variation in coefficient values. Our results suggest that attitudes toward the potential benefits and risks associated with shale gas development play a larger and more consistent role in predicting preference for moratoria than proximity or other sociodemographic factors. Our methodology allows for inferences related to the extent of geographic variation in coefficient values. Our results indicate that the role of proximity in predicting preference for moratoria differs based on whether a respondent resides in an urban or rural area or within a shale play.     

Transparency as transparagency—New “meaning” for new contexts

A literature review was undertaken to find how transparency is connected to different models of governance. This paper addresses transparency in a wider sense than usual and claims its recognition from the systemic point of view. With this goal in mind, Wittgenstein's language games were used to show that transparency means what practice shows it is to regain its meaning in the never‐ending circle. On this basis, a new notion of transparency is proposed: transparagency, which connects knowing, understanding, acting, and evaluating under a new umbrella term. On the basis of Google Trends, the paper exposes a link between transparency and freedom of expression that is contrary to common understanding—Transparency is ensured more when people talk about it less.     

“Unredressed” Grievances under RTE: Navigating the State Labyrinth

Despite the refrain that India's statutory rights suffer from weak enforcement, little academic attention has been paid toward the role of grievance redress mechanisms that are crucial to rights enforcement. This article undertakes a systematic policy analysis of the grievance redress system under the Right to Education (RTE) Act at the level of both design and performance by illustrating it through the Karnataka example. Our findings show that the redress procedures under RTE in Karnataka are perplexing and poorly designed and have not led to enforcement of the right. With faltering administrative accountability, many complainants find themselves with unresolved grievances leading to unenforced or improperly enforced rights. Significant changes in the law and a substantial redesign of institutions are vital for effectively enforcing the RTE.     

Learning from the “Milwaukee challenge”

The consequences of administering welfare-to-work programs through county-level agencies may be the most important issue omitted from current discussions of welfare reform. An administrative geography of county welfare agencies fragments metropolitan labor markets, consigning central county residents to job-poor areas and isolating them from job-rich suburban counties. This paper illustrates this effect by mapping employment/population shifts and administrative boundaries in metropolitan Milwaukee. The paper ends with the suggestion that county agencies be allowed to play variable rather than fixed functional roles in a labor exchange process that must now accommodate a metropolitan scale.     

The “baby steps” in mainstreaming sustainable public procurement in Ghana: A “double‐agency” perspective

The emerging literature on public procurement policy suggests that public procurement may be leveraged to advance several public policy agenda. Hence, many countries have reformed their public procurement process towards social and environmental outcomes termed sustainable public procurement. These reforms have often been launched in response to international initiatives such as the global 10‐year framework for action on sustainable consumption and production by the Johannesburg implementation plan in 2002 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet, empirical evidence on the drivers and benefits of SPP in developing countries is still scarce. This gap is addressed with a qualitative case study of six public sector institutions in Ghana. On the basis of elite interviews, this paper highlights barriers to mainstreaming SPP in Ghana's public sector. We further advance the scanty principal–agency literature by establishing a double‐agency relationship in the context of SPP, which depicts limited agency cases where principals lack the capacity to defend their own interests.     

基于空间治理视角的城市贫困研究综述

相较于农村贫困,城市贫困是一种在空间上集聚的相对贫困,明晰它的空间特征、演变规律及影响因素等对于城市贫困的精准治理有着重要作用。为此,应用Citespace科学文献可视化工具,对Web of Science数据库中1052篇城市贫困主题的英文文献(1995—2019年)和中国知网(CNKI)数据库中2912篇相关中文文献(1981—2019年)进行分析,可从空间视角总结国内外城市贫困的研究现状及研究热点。结果表明:研究趋势上,国外对于城市贫困研究的关注度总体呈现上升趋势,而国内城市贫困的研究起步较晚、增长幅度较大,但在关注度上出现倒U型结构;概念上,从空间视角定义城市贫困多是认为居住区内的人们遭受了不同类型的"剥夺";研究内容上,城市贫困空间的测量与识别、时空动态变化、影响因素分析及大数据的应用等是国内外城市贫困的研究热点;贫困空间的演变及成因上,受居住、种族和阶级隔离等多种经济文化因素的综合影响,国外的城市贫困呈现由内及外的郊区化现象,而国内城市贫困空间演化较为复杂多变。     

Grappling with the “real politics” of systemic corruption: Theoretical debates versus “real‐world” functions

A growing body of research argues that anticorruption efforts fail because of a flawed theoretical foundation, where collective action theory is said to be a better lens for understanding corruption than the dominant principal–agent theory. We unpack this critique and advance several new arguments. First, the application of collective action theory to the issue of corruption has been, thus far, incomplete. Second, a collective action theory‐based approach to corruption is in fact complementary to a principal–agent approach, rather than contradictory as is claimed. Third, applications of both theories have failed to recognize that corruption persists because it functions to provide solutions to problems. We conclude by arguing that anticorruption effectiveness is difficult to achieve because it requires insights from all three perspectives—principal–agent theory, collective action theory, and corruption as serving functions—which allows us to better understand how to harness the political will needed to fight corruption.     

Compact,Walkable, Diverse Neighborhoods:Assessing Effects on Residents

What research supports the view that compact, walkable, diverse (CWD) neighborhoods are beneficial for urban residents? To make this assessment, we searched the literature to try to understand the current status of evidence regarding claims about the CWD neighborhood. We find that research linking CWD neighborhoods to effects on residents coalesces around three main topics: social relations, health, and safety. We conclude that on the basis of the literature reviewed, most of the intended benefits of the CWD neighborhood have been researched and found to have significant, positive effects for urban dwellers. While physical factors are but one element affecting behavior and outcomes, and the issues of self-selection and causality remain, overall, key dimensions of the CWD neighborhood have been found to positively affect social interaction, health, and safety.     

Can Nonprofit Management Help Answer Public Management’s “Big Questions”?

Are the fields of nonprofit management and public management naturally complementary, or are they substitutes? Briefly surveying the nonprofit literature on board governance, volunteer management, and performance measurement, the author shows that study of the third sector can help inform public management’s “big questions”. As such, nonprofit studies and scholarship should represent an improvement to public administration curricula and a fertile source of ideas for public managers.     

The Theory and Practice of “Nudging”: Changing Health Behaviors

Many of the most significant challenges in health care—such as smoking, overeating, and poor adherence to evidence‐based guidelines—will only be resolved if we can influence behavior. The traditional policy tools used when thinking about influencing behavior include legislation, regulation, and information provision. Recently, policy analysts have shown interest in policies that “nudge” people in particular directions, drawing on advances in understanding that behavior is strongly influenced in largely automatic ways by the context within which it is placed. This article considers the theoretical basis for why nudges might work and reviews the evidence in health behavior change. The evidence is structured according to the Mindspace framework for behavior change. The conclusion is that insights from behavioral economics offer powerful policy tools for influencing behavior in health care. This article provides public administration practitioners with an accessible summary of this literature, putting these insights into practical use.