Cultural Aspects Of Europeanization: The Case Of The Scottish Office

This article takes an in-depth look at the cultural implications of membership of the European Union (EU) for a UK government department. As part of a broader examination of how Europeanization, in its various forms, has affected a range of Whitehall departments, Bulmer and Burch (1998) concluded that the cultural element of change in the UK has been limited in the sense that existing administrative traditions within government departments have not undergone any radical reorientation. The purpose here is to test the validity of these conclusions and in more general terms afford detailed consideration to an area of Europeanization which has tended to be neglected in the academic discourse. This is achieved by way of employing interview and documentary-based source material relating to the area of cultural change as it affected a particular UK department, the Scottish Office. In the event, the piece concludes that the detail of the Scottish Office case can be used to confirm Bulmer and Burch's general observation that cultural Europeanization has not manifested itself to any great extent within UK government departments in the sense that it has entailed wide-reaching changes to administrative approaches and working practices. More generally, the empirical basis of the analysis provides fresh insights into how specific matters, such as training and secondments, have impacted upon the work of civil servants in the UK.     

'Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind': Assessing The Impact Of Markets For Children's Residential Care

This article is concerned with assessing the effectiveness of markets for complex professional services in social care. The issue is explored through an account of developments in the children's residential care sector. Over the past five years there has been a steady expansion in the role of external markets in this area. However, this was not required by the Children Act 1989 and has become the subject of considerable debate between policy makers and practitioners. While some favour an extension of choice, others argue that a further decline in local authority run provision will be both costly and detrimental in terms of meeting key policy goals. In order to assess these claims, reference is made to the findings of a study of purchasing practices for children's residential care in twelve local authorities in England and Wales. The impact of the emerging market is analysed along two dimensions. Firstly, we assess how far it is operating efficiently, concentrating on market structure, information and transaction costs. Secondly, attention is given to the impact of market changes on the policy objectives of: localized placements; ensuring adequate safeguards; and matching needs and services. The results reveal that there have been significant costs associated with markets in children's services. In a context of government efforts to promote modes of service delivery on the basis of 'what works', these difficulties have certain implications. Not only do they draw attention to the need for greater collaboration between purchasers and providers, they also point to the continued relevance and usefulness of local authority managed provision.     

Italy's Antitrust Chief: The Case For Regulating Fake News Online

Because of the unlimited amount of information on the internet, there is a less pluralistic exchange of different opinions than in traditional media.     

The Stability of M3 Money Demand and Monetary Growth Targets: The Case of South Africa

The main purpose of this article is to determine whether money should continue to play an important role in the formulation of monetary policy in South Africa, even though the monetary policy framework has recently changed to an inflation targeting strategy. Money can continue to play an important role in the formulation of an efficient monetary policy strategy as long as there is a stable money demand function and money contains useful information about future price changes. The paper presents empirical evidence of a constant and structurally stable M3 money demand function for South Africa over the period 1968-97. The analysis further shows that the non-constancies experienced during 1998-99 may only be temporary. Despite evidence of a stable M3 money demand function, the results indicate that M3 money provides little information about future price changes in South Africa and may therefore have lost its usefulness as a reliable indicator for monetary policy. The money stock is endogenous, with prices determining money through the stable M3 money demand function.     

From Chaos To Patterns Of Understanding: Reflections On The Dynamics Of Effective Government Decision Making

Like other liberal-democratic governments, Australia has been going through a process of dramatic change in political and administrative structures and processes. There has been the well-documented shift from controlling inputs to managing for results which has resulted in the desired enhancement of executive government's responsibility and accountability for outcomes. A clear understanding of the evolving process of cabinet decision making points the way ahead to the next phase of reform. What lies ahead could, indeed, be more revolutionary than what has been achieved to date. Weber's dynamic concept of authority and domination, when understood as Weber himself used it, can tell one much about change and future possible evolution. It helps, heuristically, to indicate that government decision-making processes have already evolved to a sophisticated level. However, there is still much development that should be undertaken to maintain the quality of decision making. For instance, the move to small policy-advising departments and separated administrative programme-delivery agencies could be seen as a natural evolution and quite predictable. Good governance relies much on attaining a balance, in Weber's terms, between the ethics of intention (means) and the ethics of responsibility (ends). Together, they make the 'true man' who can have a 'vocation of politics' says Weber – but the 'true man' is hard to find. What is needed, therefore, are decision-making processes that are good at drawing out this balance. Well-established patterns of social action, encapsulated in Weber's sociology and typographically oriented hermeneutics, can help identify how this could be achieved. For instance, when one understands Weber's ideal types of authority structure as the core of a comprehensive conceptual model with constant interplay and movement over time, one can get a hint of how government decision making could be further enhanced.     

Jihadist Radicalization in East Africa: Two Case Studies

Al-Shabaab, the Somali militia currently fighting against African forces in Somalia, has seen varying degrees of success in its regional recruitment efforts. As it continues to struggle against the forces of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), the militia has tried to step up these efforts. To this end, the group has seen significant success in countries such as Kenya, while it has struggled in Somaliland. The strategies and tactics employed by al-Shabaab in order to successfully recruit vary depending on geographical location, as do the motivations to join, and drawing on fieldwork in both Kenya and Somaliland this study will compare and contrast the effectiveness al-Shabaab recruitment in both of these countries. In doing so, it will examine which local conditions either enhance or limit these efforts, identifying some of the determinants of the success and failure of jihadist recruitment in east Africa.     

Policy Network Transformation: The Implementation Of The Ec Directive On Packaging And Packaging Waste

Policy network analysis has been criticized for failing to adopt a sufficiently dynamic approach to the study of policy-making processes. There have been, however, a number of studies illustrating how policy networks change, recognizing that they are not static entities but respond to changes in the policy environment. This article applies policy network analysis to the negotiation of plans to implement the 1994 EC Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive in the UK and provides a further contribution to the literature on the formation and transformation of policy networks. The analysis reveals significant changes in the structure and operation of the policy network during the period studied. The reasons for such changes confirm those put forward by other policy network analysts, such as the power of the actors involved and conflicts between them. Other reasons include the role of the government and the tight schedule laid out by the directive.     

Utilizing The Delphi Technique In Policy Discussion: A Case Study Of A Privatized Utility In Britain

A challenge for social policy makers is to explore consensus and dissensus in issues where approaches such as roundtable meetings and focus groups are not feasible or likely to provide accurate information. The Delphi survey technique is a powerful tool for exploring social policy issues not as widely used as it deserves. This article explores Delphi and describes its application to a major and highly contentious public policy issue; how the electricity supply industry should respond to customers in debt. Our experience demonstrates how expertise and opinions of individuals who either would not or could not normally cooperate can be brought together to achieve a consensus, resulting in policy changes that lead to measurable social welfare gains. It illustrates Delphi's strength as a policy tool that recognizes the multiplicity of interests involved in such issues, the value of different kinds of front-line expertise and the desirability of proceeding on the basis of a consensus of informed opinion.     

Political Manipulation Or Feedback In English Local Authorities’ Standard Spending Assessments? The Case Of The Abolition Of The Inner London Education Authority

The focus of attention in this article is on the major shift in Education Standard Spending Assessments, and with it central grants, in favour of Inner London which first took place in 1990, and has persisted since then. This coincided both with the abolition of the Inner London Education Authority and the transfer of education responsibilities to the Inner London Boroughs, and the introduction of the poll tax. The objective of this article is to test whether this shift in favour of Inner London was due to political manipulation or, instead, was another example of the long-established technical characteristic of 'feedback' in spending needs assessments in the English local finance system. A test is devised which distinguishes between these two explanations and involves the use of an Inner London dummy variable. The results provide strong evidence of political manipulation. The implications of this finding are considered.     

More Than 'Counting Manhole Covers': The Evolution Of The British Tradition Of Public Administration

This article is a revised version of an inaugural lecture, delivered at the University of Leeds on 30 April 1998. The focus of the lecture and, thus, of this article is concerned with administrative history and the civil service. The first part of the article is about the pioneers of the academic study of public administration, and the subject's relationship with political philosophy. The second part examines the role of the Webbs and the British approach to public administration. The third part evaluates the contribution of the academics of the 'Golden Age' of public administration. The fourth part deals with changing perceptions of public administration, with a particular emphasis on developments in the civil service; it is deliberately self-referential. The final part briefly considers the future of the academic study of public administration, concluding that it has one.     

The Audit Commission: guiding, steering and regulating local government

How does the non‐executant state ensure that its agents are fulfilling their obligations to deliver nationally determined policies? In the case of elected local government in England and Wales, this function is carried out by the Audit Commission (AC) for Local Authorities and the Health Service for England and Wales. Since being established in 1983, it is the means by which local authorities are held to account by central government, both for its own purposes and on behalf of other interested stakeholders. Although the primary function of the AC is to ensure that local authorities are fulfilling their obligations, it does so by using different methods. By acting as a regulator, an independent expert, an opinion former and a mediator, the AC steers local authorities to ensure that they are compliant with the regulatory regime and are implementing legislation properly.     

Higher Education in Transition to a Market Economy: Two Case Studies

THE IDEA FOR THIS ARTICLE came from a visit to Tomsk that took place in May 1997. The authors visited the State University of Tomsk, one of Russia's leading universities, with an enviable research record and very good library and computing facilities, and were fortunate enough to be able to interview senior staff of the university concerning their budgets and financial situation. Apparently the situation in Tomsk is not especially bad; indeed it may well be rather better than elsewhere in Russia. In order to have a little basis for comparison and to provide a second case study, we also investigated some aspects of the financial arrangements at the Economics Faculty of Moscow State University. What we learned from these two cases-admittedly far from a representative sample-not only revealed a great deal about the current state of higher education reforms in Russia but also provided a snapshot of the state of Russian economic reforms in general. Hence although this article is partly about Tomsk and Moscow, it is also about these wider issues. In significant respects, Russia remains quite distant from a well-functioning market-type economy, and some of these respects are important for the higher education sector. In a very fundamental sense, one could identify the main source of Russian shortcomings in reforms as a general problem of the state.1 However, this is not the place for a general review of such a major topic. Instead, in this article we focus on a few aspects of Russia's reforms in so far as they affect higher education, namely (1) ownership, property rights and governance issues; (2) funding issues and the state budget; (3) the tax regime and (4) non-functioning of the market economy. In what follows, therefore, we proceed as follows. First we outline some general issues relevant for the reform of a system of higher education moving away from former, Soviet-type structures, focusing on the Russian situation; then we present the case studies of Tomsk and Moscow. The following section examines issues concerning higher education in particular and the reform process more generally, as highlighted in the two case studies and in the light of the above four issues. We end with a short concluding section.     

Models For Research into Decision-MakingProcesses: On Phases, Streams and Decision-Making Rounds

This article elaborates on the question of how complex decision making can be analysed. Three conceptual models are compared: the phase model, the stream model and the rounds model. Each model is based on specific assumptions about what decision making is and how it should be analysed. The phase model focuses on successive and distinctive stages in a process, i.e. defining a problem, searching for, choosing and implementing solutions. The stream model emphasizes concurrent streams of participants, problems and solutions, defining decision making as the connection between these streams. The rounds model combines elements of the other two models, in assuming that several actors introduce combinations of problems and solutions, and create progress through interaction. Each model generates specific insights, as is shown from the example of the 'Betwe line', a railway line intended for the transport of cargo, in the Netherlands. The phase model concentrates on decisions taken by a focal actor; the stream model focuses on the coincidentallinks between problems, solutions and actors; and the rounds model on the interaction between actors.