The governance of public affairs

• Government and governance are frequently treated as synonyms. Governing is what governments do in formulating and implementing policies. A burgeoning political science literature uses the term governance in a different way to describe the growing tendency of governments to govern in partnership with a range of non‐state actors and, as a purported consequence, the marginalization of governments within policy‐making processes. Here, some writers go so far as to talk about ‘governance without government’. In a forthcoming book, Rethinking Governance: Bringing the State Back In, Stephen Bell and I argue that this dominant ‘society‐centred’ perspective on governance is flawed. In our view whilst governments are indeed now more likely to forge relationships with a larger range of non‐state actors, they nevertheless remain the central players in governance arrangements. Indeed we argue that governments have been strengthened through the relationships they have developed. This article reviews some of the extant literature on governance and specifies the basic terms of our ‘state‐centric relational’ approach.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Corporate public affairs: necessary cost or value‐added asset?

This paper examines the valuation tools available to measure the financial contribution that public affairs activities add to the corporate bottom line. The paper begins with a consideration of the state of quantification in public affairs. Next, theoretical frameworks for broad classes of valuation methodologies are presented. Specific models applied by companies are also examined, outlining their advantages and limitations. The paper concludes with recommendations for implementing quantitative financial measures and opportunities for future research. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

Germany: public affairs reinvented

Reunification, growing international exposure and the move of the capital from Bonn to Berlin are not merely milestones for the major changes that have occurred in German politics since World War II. They are developments that have profoundly affected and continue to affect political life in Germany. The way that political, civic and economic interests engage with the political system has changed, and this raises the question of what public affairs is and can achieve in this context. As practitioner the author observes four main trends. First, public affairs is increasingly being understood in terms of the meaning of the German word ‘Gesellschaftspolitik’. Second, the changing nature of how political issues are being communicated demands a growing expertise from all the players involved. Third, the general feeling among organisations for ‘need to do something political’ does not yet correspond with a specific demand for public affairs services. And last, a market for high profile consultancy‐led public affairs services is still in the making. Public affairs practitioners in Germany will be key in shaping and developing the profile of public affairs as a serious discipline with services and expertise, maturely tailored to local market needs. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications     

Corporate interests and public affairs: organised business–government relations in EU member states

The internationalisation of economic and political affairs changes the way in which business interests are brought to bear on public policy. This is a global phenomenon but can, in particular, be observed in Europe. The construction of the European Union, the development of the Single Market and the build‐up of the policy institutions to go with it, together change business–government relations profoundly. This paper answers the question of how organised business interests relate to government agencies and political institutions. By using the example of trade associations in the Netherlands and Germany, the paper shows that, despite the internationalisation of public affairs in Europe, the national political level remains strategically important for the representation of business interests. The paper thus argues that changes in European business–government relations are institutionally embedded at both the European and the national level. The implication for future research is that much of the dynamics of economic and political internationalisation materialises within the domestic arrangements of interest politics. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

Corporate interests and public affairs: organised business–government relations in EU member states

The internationalisation of economic and political affairs changes the way in which business interests are brought to bear on public policy. This is a global phenomenon but can, in particular, be observed in Europe. The construction of the European Union, the development of the Single Market and the build‐up of the policy institutions to go with it, together change business–government relations profoundly. This paper answers the question of how organised business interests relate to government agencies and political institutions. By using the example of trade associations in the Netherlands and Germany, the paper shows that, despite the internationalisation of public affairs in Europe, the national political level remains strategically important for the representation of business interests. The paper thus argues that changes in European business–government relations are institutionally embedded at both the European and the national level. The implication for future research is that much of the dynamics of economic and political internationalisation materialises within the domestic arrangements of interest politics. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

Public affairs: an American perspective

This paper explores the development and broadening scope of public affairs practice within the United States of America and charts the factors that have influenced its current development. To understand the scope of how public affairs has developed in the United States, it is necessary to examine the historical evolution of the function in the USA and the early 20th century influence of the US government on defining and regulating its definition of public relations and public affairs, which resulted in the still‐in‐effect Gillett Amendment. Since then, public affairs has expanded into the private as well as the public sectors as corporations and organisations recognise the need to gain public trust for their ventures. In the US today, public affairs practitioners perform duties that range from issues management to environmental scanning to legislative affairs. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

Intersectoral differences in public affairs: the duty of public reporting in public administration

Public reporting is a requirement for public affairs practitioners in public administration because of the democratic context in which government operates. By reporting to the public‐at‐large on agency activities, government agencies contributed to an informed citizenry, the essential foundation of a democracy. For public affairs in business administration and non‐profit administration, public reporting is desirable rather than mandatory. Public reporting was traditionally accomplished indirectly, through news media coverage of government. However, recent research suggests a diminution of interest by the media in fulfilling its role as an instrument of democracy. This means that the public reporting obligation of public affairs professionals in public administration needs to shift to direct reporting, through such products as annual reports, newsletters, TV programmes, Internet websites etc. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications.     

The relationship management function of public affairs officers in Chile: Identifying opportunities and challenges in an emergent market

Research on the public affairs profession in both South and Latin America is one of the leading limitations today in international public relations research. This study helps to lessen such a gap by offering more realistic insight into the ideologies and pressures that govern public affairs practice in Chile. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 15 experts who are current senior‐level public affairs practitioners in the Chilean capital of Santiago. Results offer three key insights: First, the core function of public affairs in Chile surrounds behaviors of lobbying and governmental relations. Second, leveraging cohesion between organizational private interest and the public interest is a key to leveraging pressure on elected officials and governmental agencies. Lastly, there is significant concern regarding public trust in the lack of transparency in the Chilean public affairs field, facilitated by insufficient governmental regulation. Such research offers practical and grounded insights for public affairs and public relations scholarship.     

Tools of digital innovation in public affairs management: A practice-oriented analysis

While the literature on digital transformation is growing in several fields, research on the effects of digital innovation in the practice of public affairs is still scattered and unsystematic, mostly focusing on interest groups' social media strategies. However, digital innovation has begun to change the practice of public affairs management in many areas, especially in the form of datafication, AI analytics, and cloud-based knowledge management platforms. Growing possibilities in the use of data science and evidence-informed strategic decision-making have arisen in domains traditionally shaped by intuitions and non-codified professional experience. Based on desk research of case studies and hands-on analyses of three increasingly popular public affairs management software platforms (FiscalNote, Quorum, KMIND), this article develops a practice-oriented analysis of various digital tools and functionalities available to public affairs practitioners today, tackling a gap in the literature on how digital innovation can impact the management of several activities along the different phases of a public affairs campaign (monitoring and analysis, strategy design, action, assessment). The article thus highlights how digital innovation goes way beyond the sheer use of social media in communication activities, impacting the practice of public affairs on a deeper and more strategic level.     

Developments in public affairs in Australia

• This paper discusses the integrated public affairs model most common in Australian companies, and its rationale. It describes some key characteristics of the function, drawing on a comprehensive survey of public affairs departments in late 2003. The function has become more senior and strategic, more closely aligned to business imperatives and with stable or growing budgets. It identifies areas of increased attention for practitioners, including support for organization transformation and culture change, stakeholder relations as a line, as well as staff function, reputation management and sustainability reporting.

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The new randomised controlled trials (RCT) movement in public policy: challenges of epistemic governance

Since 2012, a new movement of government departments, think tanks and high-profile individuals within the UK has sought to promote the increased usage of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in public policy. They promote RCTs as an evidence-based corrective for the inappropriate certainties of experts. Recent government reports and public debate around this initiative are reviewed and analysed within a framework for epistemic governance: normative insights into how knowledge for policymaking should be understood and governed drawn from science and technology studies and the policy sciences. The legitimacy of RCT evidence within policymaking is found to rest on the recognition of three key features: (1) how multiple meanings of evidence limit generalisability, (2) ensuring a plurality of evidence inputs, including those from other forms of research and expertise, and (3) building institutions for governing the use of RCTs in the public interest. Producing evidence for policymaking is a hybrid activity that necessarily spans both science and politics. Presenting RCTs as naively neutral evidence of what policy interventions work is misleading. The paper concludes by calling for more work on how the new RCT movement might engage with its own history in social and policy research on the value of experiments for policymaking.     

Modes of regulatory governance: A political economy perspective

This article introduces the special issue by presenting a framework for the study of regulatory politics using the analytical tools and approaches of comparative political economy. Having traced the evolution of studies on regulation, it argues that scholars should pay more attention to the systemic features affecting regulation and to the relationship between regulatory policies and their outcomes. The article presents the foundations of an analytical framework based on the “regulatory policy process,” a comprehensive approach that links inputs, outputs, and outcomes. The review of the contributions to this special issue shows that regulatory regimes can be better understood by placing them within the broader political economy of a state or region. A renewed focus on regulatory outcomes can help foresee what one should expect from the impact of a certain regulatory regime on a political‐economic system.     

Tax enforcement: A public choice perspective

Federal income tax inforcement varies greatly across individual states. While it is not known if this interstate variation enhances efficiency, anecdotal evidence suggests it does not. In this paper we apply the Weingast/Moran model to the treasury and explore the relationship between the legislature and the IRS. Specifically, we model IRS audit rates by state as a function of both political and efficiency considerations. We find that the interstate differences in enforcement is influenced by efficiency considerations but also the IRS shifts enforcement away from states represented by legislators who sit on committees with oversight responsibility for the IRS.     

The state of public affairs in Austria

Following almost five decades of federal coalition government between Social Democrats and People's Party alongside an interest mediation system that gave exclusivity to only a few institutions, from 2000 to 2006, Austria underwent a rapid transformation in the direction of a pluralistic free-market interest mediation system. However, this short but intense interlude, which led to the development and establishment of professional public affairs in Austria, was stopped short by the return of the traditional Austrian interest mediation system. Following a series of so-called lobbying scandals, in 2013, Austria introduced a mandatory lobbying and interest representation register at the federal level. Two years earlier, the industry formed its own trade association, the Austrian Public Affairs Association. A study commissioned by this association has for the first time shed light on the young public affairs industry, its actors, and the working environment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The state of public affairs in Bulgaria

This paper studies the recent post-communist developments of linkages amongst organisations, society and government in Bulgaria. I argue that public affairs is in a very early, embryonic stage of development. This is to a large extent due to the very slow re-establishment of the non-centralised market economy; this is very specific to Bulgaria compared with the rest of the Central and Eastern European countries and can be explained by the significant heritage from the communist period. Today, the economic actors in Bulgaria are represented by two extremes—a myriad of small and medium enterprises, lacking the capacity and resources to develop government relations, and a few monopolistic groups with an unclear structure and ownership, which are influencing the government policy in a non-transparent way. Despite the exceptionally strong state tradition, the government institutions are very often paralysed by the lack of long-term political vision. As a result, the government was and is still easily subject to external influences. However, the situation is progressively changing, although not without external pressure from the European Union and the internal pressure of foreign investors. Public affairs will therefore develop at the speed of the development of political democracy, a modern corporate culture and the establishment of economic operators with long-term vision and interests. The profession of public affairs consultant, almost non-existent today, will then progressively find its natural place, acting as a catalyst for the development of business–government–society linkages. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lessons from NPAs crisis in Indian banks

Nonperforming assets (NPAs) crisis in Indian public sector banks is one of the biggest challenges before the current government in 2017. The finance ministry, Government of India, and the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, are worried about the surging NPAs in Indian public sector banks because of their huge macroeconomic impact and systemic risk to the financial system. If not paid timely attention, it can hamper the economic and financial stability of the nation. Rising NPAs in Indian public sector banks are a result of bank specific, macroeconomic, and political factors. In order to control the surging NPAs in Indian public sector banks, the government and the Reserve Bank of India have implemented new crisis management framework which however is not immune to several challenges. This paper looks at NPAs crisis from the lens of crisis management, stakeholder's engagement, government relations, and issue management. Harris and Fleisher ( 2016 ) identify crisis management, stakeholder engagement, government relations, and issues management as important organizational activities that constitute part of public affairs. This paper follows a tripartite structure where it first investigates the causes of NPAs in Indian public sector banks. Second, it examines the crisis management framework developed by the policy makers and highlights the key challenges. Third, in light of these challenges, it makes recommendations to tackle the NPAs crisis in Indian public sector banks.     

Chicago political economy: A public choice perspective

George J. Stigler (Ed.), Chicago studies in political economy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. Pages xviii + 641.