The new public management paradigm and the search for democratic accountability

Can we permit empowered, responsive civil servants to make decisions and be innovative and still have democratic accountability? This important question haunts those who would advocate a “new public management.” The proponents of a new public management paradigm emphasize performance the ability of their strategy to produce results. But they cannot ignore the troubling question of political accountability. They must develop a process that not only permits public managers to produce better results but also provides accountability to a democratic electorate.     

International Peacebuilding and the Politics of Identity: Lessons from Social Psychology using the Bosnian Case

This article argues that international peacebuilding efforts must be understood as identity-building projects and applies what we know from social psychology about identity processes to post-conflict peacebuilding. It argues that international peacebuilders must pay careful attention to the relationship between the multiple sources of identity from which individuals draw their self-concepts, such as their ethno-national belonging and their citizenship. Using qualitative evidence from field research on international interventions in post-conflict education reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the decade following Dayton, the article contends that the international community's efforts on the ground entrenched ethno-national group boundaries while simultaneously challenging the distinctiveness of these ethno-national identities. As a result, rather than being sites of peacebuilding, the schools of Bosnia-Herzegovina became sites of heightened tensions and controversy.     

The preconditions for successful evaluation: Is there an ideal paradigm?

The dominant paradigm in evaluation research is undergoing serious challenge. This article explores the ideal role of evaluation in decisionmaking, the methodologies for conducting evaluations, the congruence between evaluation methodology and actual organizational behavior, and the relationship between evaluators and program managers. We conclude that although there are serious disparities between the ideal and the actual in each of these four areas, and especially in the congruence between evaluation methodology and organizational behavior, there is not likely to be a change in the dominant paradigm because it is difficult for practitioners to use the language and values of new organizational perspectives.     

Remembering Vincent Ostrom: unhorsing a dominant paradigm

This essay is a memorial piece about Vincent Ostrom (September 25, 1919–June 29, 2012). I start by reviewing his academic history and then turn to Professor Ostrom’s major intellectual legacy—his effort to overturn the dominant paradigm in public administration and political science on metropolitan government reform. The three most important contributions of his work are discussed, including the introduction of public goods theory into the study of public administration and his work on quasimarkets and the Tiebout model. Three controversies or conundrums raised by his work are then discussed. Finally, the essay considers whether Professor Ostrom was ultimately successful in his effort to overthrow the traditional approach to the production and delivery of public goods at the city government level.     

Were Bosnian policy research organisations more effective in 2006 than in 2003? Did technical assistance play a role?

In 2003 the policy development process in Bosnia and Herzegovina was characterised by international community (IC) dominance. The IC provided the vast majority of the analysis of problems facing the country and drafted many of the laws. This article documents developments from fall 2003 to fall 2006 in the use of evidence and analysis in the policy development process and the role of local policy research organisations (PROs—often called think tanks) in it. The likely relation between these changes and the activities of a PRO mentoring project that operated over the same period is also assessed. Evidence comes as a series of interviews in both years with government officials and members of parliament, on the one hand, and leaders of PROs and advocacy NGOs on the other. The broad picture that emerges from the above review is of a substantial positive development in the policy development process in Bosnia and Herzegovina over the period. Factual evidence and analysis are playing a much greater role, and PROs have been a major provider of this information. The evidence indicates that PROs have been successful in convincing the policy community that they are purveyors of objective, disinterested advice and analysis. The improvements occurred in a conducive environment that steadily placed greater responsibility for policy formation on Bosnian officials. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

巨灾风险防范的中国范式

中国近年应对包括1998年洪水,2003年SARS,2008南方低温雨雪冰冻和汶川地震等巨灾的实践申,充分发挥了国家政治制度在应对巨灾时的特殊功能,即：“举国应对巨灾”的范式。在这一范式中,各级政府的坚强指挥起到了核心作用;军队、武警及公安等组成的应急武装力量起到了关键作用;改革开放30年形成的较强国力起到了保障作用;广大群泉及各类社会力量的积极参与起到了推动作用;各类媒体的积极舆论引导起到了凝聚力量的作用。我们称这一“举国应对巨灾”范式为“巨灾风险防范的中国范式”。在这一范式中,“五个作用”的整合展示了中国综合灾害风险防范的结构与功能体系的优化,从而体现了巨灾风险防范的高效率,这一点对一些西方国家防范巨灾风险有借鉴价值。然而,在这一范式中,防范巨灾风险的效益仍需要做全面地改进。借鉴一些国家建立的巨灾风险转移的经验,发展巨灾保险与再保险业务;提高各类基础设施的设防水平和生态系统服务能力;提高全民防范巨灾风险的意识和掌握基本逃生技能;完善巨灾风险防范的预案和信息集成网络及指挥平台等,可全面提高防范巨灾风险的资源利用效益．     

法律移植范式的建构——兼从辩诉交易的微观角度

从法律移植的概念界定入手,对法律移植的范式进行比较分析,选定较为合理的移植范式,并运用在辩诉交易的微观领域,以此进行检验,旨在得出法律移植的一般方法。     

论库恩的范式不可通约性及其语言学转向

范式的不可通约性是库恩科学哲学思想的重要部分。在《科学革命的结构》之后,库恩的范式不可通约性思想遭到了许多的质疑与批评,为了消除这些质疑,库恩对不可通约性做了一些修改,使不可通约性发生了很多变化,这一理论渐渐发生语言学转向,不可通约性转化成为不可翻译性。通过对库恩科学哲学思想的深入研究,不仅解释了库恩不可通约性的完整内涵,描述了库恩思想语言学转换的全过程,也可以从库恩的思想转换中得到一些启示。     

Techno-economic paradigm versus the market: on recent theories of late industrialization

The recent resurgence of intellectual interest in industrialization has been stimulated by the emergence of a wealth of empirical evidence which constitutes a reinterpretation of the East Asian experience, and the rise in mainstream academia of the 'new' theories of trade and growth. Both of these two bodies or writings point to the necessity of placing technological development at the centre of industrialization. There is however considerable doubt among economists over this tematic shift away from the hitherto dominant emphasis on incentive. There are also conceptual ambiguites over the nature of technological development that need to be clarified. This paper aims to reaffirm the centrality of technological development, and to argue that the imperative of technological development normally outstrips the capacity of the regulation of the market.     

Public affairs as reality construction: an established paradigm with new implications

• This article was initially a reaction to the special issues of the Journal of Public Affairs on the relative lack of theoretical foundations for the research and practice of public affairs (Vol. 1 no. 4, Vol. 2 no. 1, 2002).
• The social‐scientific approach that is known under the name constructionism has interesting implications for the study and the practice of this field. The authors explore some of its central concepts and implications such as framing, priming, typification, claims making, symbolic power, background, sense making and narrative construction. They test some of these concepts for their applicability and usefulness for research, theory building and practice in the field of public affairs.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Testing the China Threat paradigm: China's high-speed railway diplomacy in Southeast Asia

Vying for high-speed railway projects overseas has become a prominent feature of China's diplomacy in recent years, including in Southeast Asia. These efforts have been widely depicted within the premises of the China Threat narrative – as a part of Beijing's agenda to alter the power balance in Southeast Asia at the expense of the economic, political, and security well-being of countries in the region. This paper challenges such interpretations and concludes that these projects do not have either the intention or capacity to facilitate such a hostile and far-reaching agenda toward the region.     

Hungary's U-turn in Kornai's system paradigm perspective: a case for national authoritarian capitalism

Public Choice - In an article published in 2016, János Kornai proposes to add a third form of governance between democracy and dictatorship to his binary model of system paradigm. It is an...     

Prisoners of the paradigm: process consultants and ‘clinical’ development practitioners

It is argued that process consultancy and clinical development practice, which are the dominant methods underlying much of the consulting work undertaken by development practitioners, are adopted for ideological rather than pragmatic reasons. The behaviour of process consultants is said to bear the hallmarks of the puzzle-solving activity of normal scientists operating within a ruling paradigm. The scientific and practical limitations of process consultancy are discussed within this context. A pragmatic approach, which attempts to match consultancy method with the circumstances in which it is to be applied, is presented on logical and empirical grounds as being more likely to produce desirable outcomes. It is also suggested that, in many development contexts, desirable outcomes are more likely to be achieved where emphasis is given to ends rather than means. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Public Admin. Dev. Vol. 17 , 341–349 (1997). No. of Figures: 0. No. of Tables: 0. No. of Refs: 38.