Public Co-Financing of Private Sector's Investments: Subsidiarity and Corruption

The literature on corruption makes unclearpredictions on the relations betweensubsidiarity principle, according to whichpublic decisions should be done at thelower level government possible, andcorruption of public officials. In thispaper, we compare two alternative regimes,centralised vs. decentralised, forthe public co-financing of privateprojects. We show that, in the absence ofcorruption, the two regimes give the same results. Borrowing from the Chamberlin's analysis ofmonopolistic competition and from therent-seeking literature, we introducecorruption in the model as a selling costfor the private suppliers. We show that acentralized regime causes higher corruptionlevels because of the higher number ofprivate suppliers of competing projects. Asa result, a central government tends tohave a higher level of public capitalexpenditure than two (equally corruptible)regional governments.     

The Efficiency of State Child Support Enforcement Programs

The success of the Child Support Enforcement Program has been questionable since its inception in 1975. This paper attempts to measure the success of the state CSE programs through the development of several performance measures.     

Administering Romance: Government Policies Concerning Pre-marriage Education Programs

Recent policy objectives surrounding the institution of marriage are based on strategies aimed at sustaining a stable and morally cohesive society. Policy-makers disapproving of marriage breakdowns often focus on the behaviour of individuals to explain the breakdowns. Policy initiatives seek to 'cure' individuals to overcome the problem of marriage failure. Pre-marriage education programs encourage self-help and depend on individuals solving their own problems. I argue in this paper that this rational view of marriage is flawed because it does not engage with the issue of romance. This is an important concern to administrators because romance often plays a central role in partner choice and people's expectations of marriage. Policy-makers either ignore romance or treat it as a myth to be countered; they rarely discuss how it influences a couple's decision to marry in the first place. I argue that romance should not be dismissed so easily as it plays a significant role in gender relations. Acknowledging romance ought to be a significant part of administering marriage education programs.     

Bureaucrats and Markets in China: The Rise and Fall of Entrepreneurial Local Government

Local government entrepreneurship in China in the reform era is argued to have been, on balance, instrumental to growth and market-oriented reform.¹ Economic factors are emphasized in explaining both its rise and anticipated decline. Undeveloped markets and established local state trading networks favored agencies of the local state in exploiting business opportunities arising from deregulation. However, market development and increasing autonomy of firms are now reducing the advantage of local government business agencies, and they face a diminished and changed role.     

Worker Perspectives on the Private Financing of Government-Sponsored Dislocated Worker Programs

This study analyzes worker perspectives on the financing responsibilities of businesses, workers and government for dislocated worker programs that provide job search and retraining assistance to unemployed workers. It is based on a survey of 1,555 experienced workers in Illinois. Joint business and worker financing approaches were the most favored and least polarizing financing alternative. In contrast, the government grant approach was extremely polarizing with significant support but strong negative reaction among higher-income, white, and college-educated workers. Surprisingly strong negative reaction was also found among lower-income, blue-collar workers. The results are consistent with related research on the conservative attitudes of American workers toward social welfare programs.     

The Job of Government: Interweaving Public Functions and Private Hands

Lively and sometimes raucous debate about the job of government has increasingly engulfed American politics. Much of that debate has swirled around government's size, with conservatives arguing the case for shrinking government and liberals fighting to grow it. In reality, however, neither of these debates engages the critical underlying trend: the increasing interweaving of governmental functions deeply into every fiber of the nongovernmental sectors. Many reforms have sought to rein in government's power, but none has engaged the fundamental interweaving of policy implementation, and, not surprisingly, most have failed. Indeed, many have eroded the public's trust in the governmental institutions on which they depend. This process raises fundamental challenges for defining government's core role, for building the capacity to govern effectively, and for enhancing the accountability of governmental programs. Many of government's administrative tools are a poor match for the governance problems they seek to solve.     

Political Trust, Ideology, and Public Support for Government Spending

This article analyzes the relationship between political trust, ideology, and public support for government spending. We argue that the political trust heuristic is activated when individuals are asked to sacrifice ideological as well as material interests. Aggregate- and individual-level analysis shows that the effects of political trust on support for government spending are moderated by ideology. Consistent with the unbalanced ideological costs imposed by requests for increased government spending, we find that the effects of political trust are significantly more pronounced among conservatives than among liberals. The analysis further demonstrates that ideology conditions the effects of political trust on attitudes toward both distributive and redistributive spending. Our findings suggest that political trust has policy consequences across a much broader range of policy issues than previously thought.     

An Evaluation of Private Sector Provision of Public Infrastructure in Australian Local Government

Private sector provision of public infrastructure in Australia at all levels of government, including local government, has steadily increased over the past twenty years. Nevertheless, this method of providing public infrastructure remains controversial. This article seeks to provide a critical review of the arguments surrounding private sector provision of infrastructure in Australian local government. It examines both the case for private sector provision of municipal infrastructure in Australia and the major arguments advanced against this approach to infrastructure development. Given the conceptual argumentation and empirical evidence on private municipal infrastructure provision, it is argued that policy makers should employ a nuanced performance evaluation framework to assess the benefits and weaknesses of private provision on the basis of the specific type of infrastructure in question and the kind of services it provides rather than simply endorse carte blanche privatization.     

A Strategic Framework for Devolving Responsibility and Functions from Government to the Private Sector

Whether a function should be performed within or outside government is a very broad issue that relates to personal values and views concerning the relationship between individual and state, as well as a complex set of management issues. Without trying to answer those questions here, this article begins from the premise that a particular function has been judged by the political process to be the responsibility of government. The article seeks to develop an approach for government managers to use when deciding whether to perform the function directly in-house or to perform the function indirectly through the use of a non-governmental organization. The first part of this article begins by delineating distinguishing characteristics of government, nonprofit, and private organizations, and then assesses the degree to which those characteristics impede or facilitate the performance of public functions. The article then develops a framework and a method for making privatization decisions. The decision to privatize requires strategic thinking; this article provides an example of how a strategic framework might be applied by analyzing the issues that would be faced in privatizing a key element of New York City's homeless program.     

Determinants of Business Response to Government Tax Incentives for Privately Financed Termination Benefit Programs

This study examines the industry and organizational factors that determine the likelihood of business response to government tax incentives for privately financed termination benefit programs and the substitution problems confronting government programs that use tax incentives to encourage businesses to provide these benefits to their employees. It concludes that government tax incentives will likely have marginal effects on the private provision of termination benefits, especially in large firms in industries with a strong market presence from government. These programs most likely will get high participation from large firms which already provide these benefits to salaried and hourly workers resulting in high substitution effects. They also are likely to extend benefits to hourly employees in firms that already provide similar benefits to salaried workers. However, these tax incentives are likely to have very limited inducement effects on small and medium-sized firms resulting in low overall target efficiency for these programs.     

The Retreat from Government Support for Social Dialogue in the Australian Public Service

This article explores the impact of the Coalition government's federal public sector reforms since 1996 in the Australian Public Service (APS). Under the Labor governments from 1983 to 1996, a range of measures operated to facilitate the development of social dialogue practices in the APS. There were also various mechanisms for consultation, information sharing and employee participation in decision-making, such as the Joint Council and Departmental Councils, statutory provisions for Industrial Democracy Plans, award provisions for consultation over business restructuring and support for consultative structures under enterprise bargaining and health and safety legislation. Nearly all of these measures have been dismantled or downgraded since the Coalition government came to office, especially those requiring consultation with trade unions or providing unions with a central role in participative mechanisms. It is argued here that the government's reforms have involved a substantial reduction in formal support for social dialogue in the APS, and a rejection of the benefits that such an approach offers.     

Managing Markets for Public Service: The Role of Mixed Public–Private Delivery of City Services

The privatization experience of U.S. municipalities shows declining use of complete contracts and a dramatic rise in mixed public–private delivery (joint contracting) of city services. The analysis here shows that city managers have recognized the need to move beyond a simple dichotomy between market delivery and public planning to an approach that balances concerns with efficiency, market management, and citizen satisfaction. The New Public Management stresses the importance of competition and efficiency, transaction costs economics emphasizes the challenges of contract management, and New Public Service assigns primary concern to citizen engagement. Nonetheless, city managers see the need to balance all three. The analysis shows the evolution of a middle position where city managers integrate markets with public delivery and give greater attention to citizen satisfaction in the service delivery process.     

Development of Local Government Debt Financing Markets: Application of a Market‐Based Framework

Needed is clear guidance on how to develop market‐based debt financing systems in transitional and developing countries. We propose an analytical framework useful for identifying constraints to financial development and providing recommendations to overcome constraints to develop municipal financing capacity. The proposed framework is applied to five country case studies: Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, and South Africa. The thesis of this paper is that municipal credit market development is related to improvements in the legal/regulatory framework governing local borrowing, the capacity of financial institutions to assess risk, and borrower capacity to support and manage debt.     

政府声誉、政府能力与非政府组织对政府的信任

非政府组织对政府部门的信任非常重要,政府声誉和政府能力是其重要影响因素.为了揭示政府声誉和政府能力对政府信任的影响,作者以非政府组织的项目负责人和志愿者为抽样对象,以非政府组织与政府部门的关系为背景,通过对政府声誉、政府能力与信任之间的相关分析和回归分析,分析了政府声誉、政府能力对政府信任的影响.研究表明,政府声誉、政府能力对政府信任产生正向影响,政府能力比政府声誉对政府信任的影响更加明显.因此,能否树立良好的声誉、培养较高的能力对政府部门获得非政府组织的信任与支持具有十分重要的现实意义.当然,影响非政府组织对政府部门信任的因素还包括非政府组织特征、制度特征等;研究模型可以进一步扩展,更全面地考察非政府组织与政府部门间的信任形成机制.     

政府创新的类型与特征——基于“中国地方政府创新奖”获奖项目的多案例研究

尽管关于中国地方政府创新积累了大量案例研究,但关于政府创新的属性、特征与类型的认识和理解仍然有待于进一步深化。利用"中国地方政府创新奖"五届共计100多个入围项目的内容分析,对中国地方政府创新的类型、特征与分布进行了经验研究。分析显示,管理创新、服务创新与合作创新是中国地方政府创新的主要类型,而技术创新与治理创新的重要性在逐步提升。东部地区的地方政府获得创新美誉的比例多于西部地区,其次是中部地区。党政机构仍然是中国地方政府创新的主力军,越来越多的社会团体和非营利组织也在加入创新的队伍。相比其他行政层级,地市和区县政府的创新精神更强。