Professionals at bay: Managing boston's public schools

Boston's public schools have long drawn national attention in educational and political studies and more recently in legal accounts of desegregation. With the rise of remedial law, the maturation of public unions, and the improvement of constituencies—all forces flowering in the 1970s—the traditional concept of organizational rationality has been effectively undermined for professionals in the school system. Problem-solving skills and professional concepts relating to resource allocation and accountability are submerged by the inescapable need for coalition building, negotiation, and compromise. In the process, the critical roles are those of amateurs, neither committed to the organization or program, nor responsible for results.     

Omissions and contradictions in an African co-operative experiment: The case of Nigeria

This brief evaluation of the co-operative organizational apparatus in Nigeria examines three aspects of a ‘co-operative ideology’; the basis of the co-operative idea; the form of economic organization and the organizational structure. The analysis proceeds in the framework of the ‘entrepreneurial approach’ and concludes that such an ideology must reflect among other things, the economically inaltruistic and individualistic nature of human behaviour that is found in Nigerian traditional communities.     

Urban local government finance in Nigeria: The case of Lagos municipal area

One of the most important results of the global reform of local governments in Nigeria in 1976 was to initiate a progressive increase in the amount of monetary transfers to local governments (LGs) by federal and state governments (especially the former). The proportion of federally collected revenues devoted to LGs increased rapidly from less than 2 per cent in 1976 to 15 per cent in 1990. This has enabled Nigerian LGs to play a more visible role in total public expenditures. On the other hand, huge federal transfers have led to sharp declines in absolute and relative terms in locally generated revenues. The two Lagos municipalities are able to generate up to 50 per cent of their total revenues. In contrast, the average for all local governments in the country is 4–5 per cent. The relatively large internal revenue sources in the two Lagos municipalities results in generous surpluses, which they are able to channel into capital development or special project expenditures. The single most important internal revenue source is the property tax, which is not even collected in some other large cities, such as Kano, Ogbomosho and Sokoto.     

Urban local government finance in Nigeria: The case of Onitsha local government

Onitsha, located along the route that connects south-western and south-eastern Nigeria, has a very financially dynamic local government. Over one-quarter of the total revenues of this local government come from its market and motor parks. This is an unusual source for a local government that has perhaps the largest per capita revenue in Nigeria—almost N40, compared with the national average of N4.9. The procedure for collecting this revenue is regarded as highly successful since there is greater reliance on the citizens than tax officials. The volume of revenues collected has allowed the council maintain a large surplus revenue over a long period of time, which enables it to carry out important programmes of primary and adult education. It is also beginning to develop its property revenue collection system in collaboration with the Anambra State government.     

中国共产党新时期治国理政的核心理念——学习《中共中央关于构建社会主义和谐社会若干重大问题的决定》札记

一(一)中共十六届六中全会《决定》提出的关于构建社会主义和谐社会问题,是我们党从中国特色社会主义事业的总体布局和全面建设小康社会的全局出发提出的重大战略任务,反映了建设富强民主文明和谐的社会主义现代化国家的内在要求,体现了全党全国各族人民的共同愿望。这是中国特色社会主义伟大事业发展历史上具有现实和长远意义的一件大事,是新一届中央领导集体以马列主义、毛泽东思想、邓小平理论和“三个代表”重要思想为指导,坚持实践基础上的理论创新,所形成的堪与“社会主义初级阶段理论”“、社会主义市场经济理论”相媲美的又一重大理…     

The government versus management controversy: Ascribing responsibility for the failure of a public corporation in Nigeria

Efforts to employ public corporations in African countries to promote development have had limited success. A major controversy has developed over who is responsible for such failure. On the one hand are those who accuse management; on the other hand are those who accuse government. This study seeks to assess the merits of the contending arguments through an analysis of Nigeria'S Cross River State Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC). There is a strong prima-facie case against management. It failed to sustain the enterprise; it failed to produce any profits; it failed to give employees satisfaction in their work; it failed to give strong direction to the corporation; it failed significantly to advance the technology of the ADC; and it made little contribution to the community. But, on close examination, it is apparent that management'S failure was a consequence of structural and financial constraints imposed on it by government. Thus, real responsibility for the failure of the ADC belongs with the government. The reasons for government ‘killing’ its own public corporation are partly constraints imposed on it and partly the opposition of its supporters to public enterprise.     

Dimensions of community development projects in Bendel State,Nigeria

Several communities in the Bendel State of Nigeria have distinguished themselves in their enthusiasm for community development through self-help efforts. In addition to their contributions in labour and money these communities also make demands on the government for various forms of aid. Because of the uncoordinated nature of the projects and the demands, the government is precipitated into responses without a thorough examination of the development impact and the priority needs of the projects. An analysis of the characteristics of the completed and on-going community development projects in Bendel State between 1970 and 1982 shows that the prime interest of communities is in the provision of social infrastructure rather than in improved production which will create wealth and employment. Similar mistakes are made by the government in its total funding and in providing matching grants for projects which have doubtful rationales. The paper suggests that planning for community development projects should involve the co-operation of the government and the people. The enthusiasm for development should be encouraged but not at the expense of co-ordinated effort which could bring about the much-desired even development by sorting out priorities and conserving resources.     

The life satisfaction approach to valuing public goods: The case of terrorism

Terrorism has large social costs that are difficult to quantify for the well-known problems of eliciting people’s preferences for public goods. We use the LSA to assess these costs in utility and monetary terms. Based on combined cross-section time-series data, we estimate the costs of terrorism for France and the British Isles. We find large negative effects of terrorism on life satisfaction that translate into considerable compensating surpluses for a hypothetical reduction in terrorism, in particular for the serious conflict in Northern Ireland. The effects of terrorism are robust and differ across groups in accordance with prior expectations.     

State capacity and public choice: a critical survey

Public Choice - ‘State capacity’ is a term associated with a popular argument in fiscal sociology, history, and political economy regarding the role of the state in the process of...     

Managing the fight against corruption: A case study

Corruption is one of the foremost problems facing policy-makers and managers in developing countries, but it is a remarkably difficult one to study. This case study—an actual episode that has been disguised to preserve confidentiality—provides a vehicle for illustrating both the application of analytical tools to corruption and the importance of practical issues of implementation and politics. The case suggests that anti-corruption policies should carefully assess (1) the relative severity of various kinds of illicit activities, including who gains and loses; (2) the relative susceptibility of the various activities to feasible changes in policies and procedures; and (3) the strategic importance of politics, in the narrow sense of bureaucratic politics as well as the wider political realities.