Introducing administrative reform through the application of computer-based information systems: A case study in India

Administrative reform in a number of developing countries has recently been directed at achieving decentralization through the diffusion of information technology to local areas. However, despite these efforts, the main objective of improving the effectiveness of development planning and monitoring systems remains unfulfilled because of poor integration between the process of technology adoption and the context within which the technology is implemented. There is a paucity of literature that aims to make explicit the nature of this integration. This paper aims to offer a contribution in this direction by describing the case of the computerized rural information systems project (CRISP) in India. The results show that during the first few years of implementation information technology served to reinforce existing inefficiencies within the bureaucracy. Information technology was later used as a vehicle for promoting change within the administration as local administrators acquired the flexibility to direct the technology towards their own requirements.     

European air combat capabilities

The United Kingdom electorate's unanticipated vote to leave the European Union risks worrying NATO allies about the UK's reliability as a defence partner at a time when Russian threats appear to be rising. To allay this concern, the British government could expand its customary multinational collaboration with European partners on defence aerospace projects, such as a new crewed combat aircraft.     

Reforming war's administrative rubble in Lebanon

After 17 years of civil strife in Lebanon, an Office of Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR) was established in 1993 to plan for short‐term rehabilitation and long‐term institutional development within the public sector. Since external technical assistance to public administration was delivered through OMSAR, its role as a host agency for international aid donors' efforts in reform policy‐making and implementation is critical. The article discusses OMSAR's approach to channelling foreign aid for administrative development in post‐war Lebanon. Lessons from the Lebanese experience in post‐war institutional development may interest countries emerging from conflicts and trying to rebuild administrative infrastructure. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

行政价值视角下中国特色行政文化构建

行政价值作为行政文化的核心,其形成、变迁与创新对行政文化来说意义重大,对于行政实践活动而言更是起到"挈领而顿,百毛皆顺"的作用。由于行政价值观的差异,相应的行政文化就会出现差异,因此行政发展理念、行政发展模式和行政发展道路也就大相径庭。本文正是基于行政价值的视角,通过认识中国传统行政文化和西方行政文化中特定的行政价值,结合我国特有文化背景和现实行政生态环境的需要,构建出一种将以人为本作为行政价值核心、兼顾公平正义和贯彻落实和谐共生的行政整体发展观的具有中国特色的行政文化,这一理论及其实践在目前有着较为重要的现实意义。     

WTO与当代中国区域行政构设

当前我国区域经济正面临着无序竞争、产业同构、重复投资等一系列问题 ,在WTO的背景下 ,这些问题显得尤为迫切。经验表明 ,单纯的市场机制已经不能妥善地解决这些问题 ,因此需要借助政府的力量来进行区域间的协调。为此 ,本文引入了区域行政的概念 ,并通过建立区域发展委员会的设想 ,对我国区域行政构设提出了可供选择的政策建议。     

Vatican intelligence capabilities in the second world war

Stephen Koch, Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Münzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals (London: HarperCollins 1994) Pp.419, 20 illus. biblio. index. £20. ISBN 0–00–255516–6.

Jenny Rees, Looking for Mr Nobody: The Secret Life of Gorowny Rees (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1994) Pp.291, 30 illus. biblio. index. £18.99. ISBN 0–297–81430–3.

V.E. Tarrant, The Red Orchestra: the Soviet Spy Network Inside Nazi Europe (London: Arms and Armour Press, 1995) Pp.224, biblio. index. £15.99. ISBN 1–85409–216–2.

Anthony Cave Brown, Treason in the Blood: H. St John Philby, Kim Philby and the Spy Case of the Century (London: Hale 1995) Pp.678, 23 illus. biblio. index. £25. ISBN 0–7090–5582‐X.     

市场经济与行政道德

市场经济条件下的行政道德日益成为政府和整个社会中的热点、重点和难点问题.本文从市场经济的一般规律出发,结合行政道德特性,进行分析和论证,认为市场经济与行政道德是双向互动的辨证关系.并提出了加强行政道德建设的对策.     

邓小平行政改革思想研究

邓小平的改革理论中包含着丰富的行政改革思想,阐明了中国行政改革的重大意义、基本原则和主要任务,为当代中国的行政改革和发展指明了方向和道路.     

新时期我国行政体制改革展望

推进行政体制改革是贯彻落实科学发展观、完善社会主义市场经济、建设社会主义法治国家的必然要求。但目前我国的行政管理体制同经济社会不断推进的新形势还存在一些不适应的方面,为此,要通过推进行政体制改革,加快政府职能转变,改进行政管理方式,加强行政法制建设,形成有利于构建社会主义和谐社会、促进经济社会全面协调可持续发展的行政管理体制。     

Politics of administrative reform and reorganization in Bangladesh

The present military government in Bangladesh has implemented a number of major administrative reform and reorganization measures. The government claims that effectuation of such measures has led to the decentralization of power and authority to the grass-root level ensuring increasing popular participation in administration; the achievement of cost-effectiveness by reducing the number of ministries, divisions and personnel from the public pay roll and by quickening of the pace of decision-making due to elimination of redundant bureaucratic layers. But the implementation, in reality, has contributed among other things to the legitimization and strengthening of the military government, and a weakening of the democratically organized political opposition. It also enables generalist civil servants to preserve, and to some extent strengthen, their position within the civil service system.     

Obstacles to the administrative modernization process in Germany

According to two surveys of the German Association of Cities among its members in 1994/95 and 1996, the number of medium-sized and big cities pursuing administrative modernization is impressive and still rising. Yet, the data also point out implementation problems of the new steering model, which is the German variation of new public management. First, financial crisis is the most common reform motive. This implies that most reformers rather focus on ‘hard’ management areas like financial management and neglect human resource management. Secondly, the data give evidence that the new steering model still has a critical mass of scepticism in local government councils. As a consequence, the re-engineering of the relationship between the administrative staff and local council members is very much deficitary. Also decentralized resource management usually boils down to the reduction of household titles and lump-sum budget cuts. This raises many questions on the democratic accountability of local government reforms in Germany.     

在革新中变革自身的越南行政改革理念

由于越南与中国同有比较接近的政治体制和经济体制 ,又同为受古代中国传统政治濡染甚为深远的国度 ,两国在行政改革层面确有不少可以相互借鉴的地方。越南在注重学习中国改革经验的基础上 ,正在积极探索符合越南实际的、有利于解决越南经济生活发生巨大变革后上层建筑弊端的行政改革路径 ,其最值得中国同行关注者 ,可能还不一定是某些具体做法的近似或差异 ,而是其行政改革理念的变化。     

对我国现行行政模式的思考——兼析里格斯的行政生态学理论

行政生态学是20世纪60年代以来在西方行政学界兴起的一门行政学分支学科,对这门学科产生重要影响的是美国学者里格斯.通过研究里格斯的行政生态学理论,并分析我国当前的行政模式,笔者认为我国目前正处于并将在相当长的一段时期内处于过渡社会.与之相对应,我国当前的行政模式是棱柱型的行政模式.而所谓的转型,就行政模式方面来说,就是要从棱柱型的行政模式向衍射型的行政模式转变,这一点对全面建设小康社会,构建社会主义和谐社会尤为重要.     

Muslims in India

The Populist Party in the United States has close ties with many extremist, racist and antisemitic organizations, and shares with them a twisted ‘Christian’ ideology known as ‘Identity’.     

Welfare policy: The administrative frontier

The process of national welfare reform has been overtaken by local reform as states implement experimental programs under federal waivers. Most of these initiatives attempt to enforce work or otherwise control the lives of the dependent in return for support. Research, which traditionally stressed the social and economic aspects of welfare or poverty, must be reoriented to address the administrative issues raised by the emerging paternalism. A combination of field interviewing and analyses of reporting data can track implementation and connect program operations to outcomes. Such research assesses program performance less definitively than experimental trials do but is more useful to operators and more relevant to current program goals. The frontiers of welfare research, like welfare policy, are institutional.     

The five capabilities of socially responsible companies

This paper develops and tests a model that integrates processes of public affairs management with stakeholder engagement and dialogue, business ethics and social reporting to explain social responsibility capabilities in organisations. The model, called Corporate Social Responsibility Management Capacity, describes social responsiveness as arising from a firm's social responsibility orientation and its public relations orientation. The paper shows how the model can be used by managers to measure, manage and improve their company's ability to be socially responsible. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

Hypotheses on the Italian administrative system

Why is the private economy in Italy thriving, while the public sector is so poor? This article spells out the general characteristics of the structures and procedures of the public sector and outlines the criteria on which to judge its efficiency in order to proceed to the presentation of four explanatory hypotheses.

The first hypothesis is an economic one: the private sector may have exploited the public sector, which bears costs that are to the direct advantage of the private economy. The second hypothesis is social: the public sector is poor because it is a means of taking on labour from the underdeveloped South, becoming in this way a social buffer. The third hypothesis is political: the administration is used to secure political support for the ruling parties (and in particular, for the Christian Democratic Party). The fourth hypothesis is historical: the administration is badly run because, as a result of the Fascist experience, Italians fear any form of ‘Bonapartism’: and it is badly organised because the public sector's take‐off has been delayed and the pace imposed on its development has been excessive. In the last section some remedies are suggested and some conclusions are outlined.