Hybrids and Contradictions: Human Resource Management in the Contemporary Public Sector

Public employment is a dynamic field of study, buffeted by the ever-changing and reforming public sector environment and by external events such as changing demographics and the global financial crisis. This first article to the special edition on contemporary public sector human resources provides a broad overview of recent developments, starting with the nature of public sector reforms and proceeding with analysis of the far-reaching effects on public employment. For many western countries, this has led to a hybrid model of old and new practices, with many internal contradictions and a confusing array of accountabilities. The new arrangements led to a de-privileging of public servants through reductions in merit and tenure. They also reduced the institutional capacity of central personnel institutions to co-ordinate and monitor public employment and public management. The article proceeds with a review of the implications of these changes in the face of new challenges such as skills shortages and economic pressures. This overview provides a backdrop for the variety of articles presented in the special edition.

Peter Blunt, Mark Turner, and Henrik Lindroth's “Patronage, Service Delivery, and Social Justice in Indonesia” appears in the International Journal of Public Administration, Volume 35, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 214—220. doi:10.1080/01900692.2011.641050. It is related to this special issue's content.     

International perspectives on public sector management and productivity: an introductory synthesis

The last ten years have seen the adoption of many significant public sector productivity initiatives globally. This special edition grew out of the first World Congress of the International Productivity Network, held in Canberra, Australia, in July 1992. Four themes are explored.     

A note on the current and capital accounts compilation of Barbados under the fourth and fifth IMF editions

Measurement of external positions of member countries has been a main feature of International Monetary Fund (IMF) operations since inception. A first step towards an understanding of current and capital account movements is the understanding of the IMF Manuals. The first edition was used as a guideline for Balance of Payments (BOP) compilers and published in 1948. However since then, important changes had occurred in the manner in which international transactions were conducted. This led to the publication of the second edition in the 1950's, the third edition in 1961 and the fourth edition in 1977. Since that last publication, liberalization of financial markets, innovations in the creation and packaging of financial instruments and new approaches to the restructuring of external debt have all taken place. As a result, the fifth edition was introduced and published in 1993 although not implemented by Barbados until two years later.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the fourth edition with the new edition with respect to the composition and structure of the current and capital accounts. It also intends to show what the changes would have implied for Barbados’ BOP statistics from 1979 until 1994 and how the statistics could impact on the future.     

From a cosmopolitan to a fascist land: Adriatic irredentism in motion

This article explores Adriatic irredentism, a complex political, cultural, and social movement, by specifically analyzing the unique role it played in the legitimization of Italian territorial claims over “language frontiers” such as Trieste and its hinterland. Through a close reading of first-hand sources, it examines how Italian irredentist intellectuals, public press, and associations purposefully utilized anti-Slav and anti-German arguments to shape public perception of both the Italian nation as well as Trieste’s Italian identity or “Italianità.” Although recent historiographical interpretations have emphasized continuities in local understandings of “Italianità,” this article examines the discontinuities in the debate over its identity. It suggests that although Italian identity was first conceived as an expression of cultural and linguistic autonomy within the broader intellectual framework of Adriatic multi-nationalism, this idea gradually vanished amidst the structural crisis triggered by the Ausgleich or Compromise of 1867 and then inexorably faded on the eve of the Great War. Thus, notions of Italian national identity took an exclusionary and sometimes xenophobic meaning that was publicly used by a wide set of political actors to justify the territorial reincorporation of the “unredeemed” land within the borders of the new Italian state. The fascist regime, especially, utilized Italianness to further its aggressive and chauvinist agenda toward the Adriatic borderland. Consequently, Italian language and culture became instruments as well as symbols of repression and imperialism that were used to fulfill the regime’s ambitions of “fascistization” of the Slavic population living in the region.     

Reference reviews

Third World Resource Directory 1994–1995. by Thomas P. Fenton and Mary J. Heffron, Oakland, California: Third World Resources, 1994, pp 800

Third World Atlas (Second edition). by Alan Thomas et al., Milton Keynes, England: Open University Press, 1994, pp 80, £37.50 hb, £12.99 pb

Atlas of World Development. by Tim Unwin, Chichester, England: John Wiley, 1994, pp 368, £49.95 hb

The Third World Handbook (Second edition). Guy Arnold, London: Cassell, pp 213, £35 hb, £16.99 pb

World Science Report 1993. UNESCO, Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1994, pp 278, 220 FF

World Disasters Report 1994. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Dordrecht, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1994, pp 176, £33.25 pb

SIPRI Yearbook 1994. SIPRI, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, pp 870, £50.00

The Jerusalem Question. by Ruth Lapidoth and Moshe Hirsch, Dordrecht, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1994, pp 576, £110.00 hb

Who's Who in Latin America: Government, Politics, Banking and Industry. by Bettina Corke, New York: Norman Ross Publishing, 1993 (Third Edition), pp 391, $99 hb

The Commonwealth Yearbook 1993–1994. London: Commonwealth Secretariat/HMSO, 1994, pp 550, £25 pb

Directory of Chinese Agricultural and Related Organisations. by Zhang Qiaoqiao, Wallingford, England: CAB International, 1994, pp 368, £49.50/US$85.00 hb

World Resources 1994–95. World Resources Institute, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, pp 400

Green Globe Yearbook. by Helge O. Bergesen and Georg Parmann, Lysaker, Norway: Fridtjof Nansen Institute, pp 345, £30/US$45.00 hb

Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia and Eritrea (Second edition). by Chris Prouty and Eugene Rosenfeld, Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1994, pp 642, US$69.50 hb

Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara (Second edition). by Chris Prouty and Eugene Rosenfeld, Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1994, pp 641, US$69.50 hb     

The crucible of national groups in Poland during world war II

Janusz K. Zawodny. Nothing But Honour: The Story of the Warsaw Uprising, 1944. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1978. Pp. 328.

Jan Nowak (Zdzislaw Jezioranski). Kurier z Warszawy (A Courier from Warsaw). London: Odnova Publishers, 1978. Pp. 534.

Kazimierz Iranek‐Osmecki. He Who Saves One Life. New York: Crown Publishers: 1971. Second edition expected 1979. Pp. 336.     

THE IRREPRESSIBLE ROD RHODES: CONTESTING TRADITIONS AND BLURRING GENRES

Rod Rhodes spent 25 years as the Editor of Public Administration before he retired from that role at the end of 2010. These essays in his honour are intended to celebrate the achievement of those 25 years and reflect on his contribution to the worlds of public administration and political science. Rod has now consolidated the standing of the journal as one of the most significant locations for work on public administration. At the same time, over his career, he has prodded and probed, challenged and innovated, in a wide range of areas. The essays in this special edition have been designed around his intellectual interests over the 40 years of his career, from local government, and networks, to ethnography and narratives. Each author was asked, as appropriate, to identify Rhodes' impact and to assess the present state of the literature. Three articles consider the state of the discipline in the UK, the USA and in the world of comparative politics. Rod is then given the opportunity to reflect on his career and where his interests might lead. As ever he wants the last word! This introduction provides the context for his career and charts in broad terms his intellectual trajectory and contribution.     

Security Beyond the State: Private Security and International Politics

Toward a Political Economy of Development: A Rational Choice Perspective. Edited by Robert H. Bates. Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA and London: University of California Press, 1988. Pp.x + 393. $48.50 and $14.95. ISBN (not provided for HB edition) and 0 520 06052 0.

Politics and Class Analysis. By Barry Hindess. Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987. Pp.136. £29.95 (hardback); £7.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 631 15067 6.

Farmers’ Movements in India. By M.V. Nadkarni. Ahmedabad: Allied Private Publishers, 1987. Pp.xiv + 237. Rs.100.     

Debating demonization: in defence of politics,politicians and political science

In a previous edition of this journal, an argument concerning the demonization of politicians and the changing nature of democracy was raised. This, in turn, raised previously unconsidered questions about (inter alia): the discourse, language and symbolism surrounding politicians; the limits of democratic politics; the politics of public expectations; and whether political scientists have a professional duty to the public in terms of promoting the public understanding of politics. The aim of making this provocative argument – framed as it was around a reinterpretation of the MPs expenses scandal in the UK – was to provoke a debate about the existence of certain ‘self-evident’ truths, the fragility of democratic politics and the future of political science as an academic discipline. Phrased in these terms the initial article was successful as six respondents – Domonic Bearfield, Alastair Campbell, Martin Gainsborough, Peter Riddell, Klaus Segbers and Gerry Stoker – immediately entered the fray and sought to either finesse and develop my arguments or to offer a considered critique. This article discusses ‘debating demonization’ in the form of a reply to each respondent and a focus on (in turn): the politics of demonization; the politics of the media; the politics of social class; the politics of monitory mechanisms; the politics of performance; and the politics of political science.     

Book notices

Michael Ellman, The USSR in the 1990s. Struggling out of Stagnation. EIU Special Report No. 1152, London, 1989, 98 pp., p/b., ;110.00, $230.00.

Geoffrey A. Hosking and George F. Cushing, eds. Perspectives on Literature and Society in Eastern and Western Europe. London: Macmillan, 1989, vii + 202 pp., £35.00.

Murray Yanowitch, ed. and intro., A Voice of Reform. Essays by Tat'iana I. Zaslavskaia. Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 1989, xix + 191 pp., $25.00.

George R. Urban, ed. Social and Economic Rights in the Soviet Bloc. A Documentary Review Seventy Years after the Bolshevik Revolution. New Brunswick and Oxford: Transaction Books, 1988, xiii + 250 pp., $34.95.

John M. Battle and Thomas D. Sherlock, eds. Gorbachev's Reforms. An Annotated Bibliography of Soviet Writings. Part I, 1985‐June 1987. Gulf Breeze: Academic International Press, 1988, 83 pp., $20.00 p/b.

W. E. Butler, Soviet Law, 2nd edition. London: Butterworths, 1988, xxiii + 430 pp., £21.95 p/b.

R. W. Davies, ed. The Soviet Union, 2nd edition. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989, xii + 228 pp., £25.00 h/b., £8.95 p/b.     

Book notices

Ljubo Sirc, Between Tito & Stalin. Andre Deutsch, London 1989, xii+200 pp., £17.95.

Iurii Shcherbak, Chernobyl: A Documentary Story. London: Macmillan in association with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1989, xvi+168 pp., £25.00 h/b, £6.99 p/b.

Victor Haynes and Marko Bojcun, The Chernobyl Disaster. London: The Hogarth Press, 1988, xi+233 pp., £7.95 p/b.

Suzanne Rosenberg, A Soviet Odyssey. Toronto and New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, 212 pp., £14.95 h/b.

Alec Nove, Stalinism and After: The Road to Gorbachev, 3rd edition. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989, 212 pp., £8.95 p/b.

Jonathan Sutton, The Religions Philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov. Towards a Reassessment. London: Macmillan, 1988, xvi+247 pp., £33.00 h/b.

Th. J. Vondrachek, Commentary on the Czechoslovak Civil Code. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1988, xxix+473 pp., £72.95/$ 130.00 h/b.

Pedro Ramet, ed., Religion and Nationalism in Soviet and East European Politics, 2nd edition. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 1989, 516 pp., £55.60 h/b, £19.95 p/b.     

Reviews

Roger Manser, Failed Transitions: The Eastern European Economy and Environment since the Fall of Communism. New York: The New Press, 1993, ix + 195 pp., $22.95. UK edition, The Squandered Dividend: The Free Market and the Environment in Eastern Europe. London: Earthscan Publications Ltd, 1993.

Jacques Nagels, La tiers‐mondisation de l'ex‐URSS? Brussels: Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1993.

John Murray, The Russian Press from Brezhnev to Yeltsin: Behind the Paper Curtain. Aldershot, Hants: Edward Elgar, 1994, viii + 280 pp.

James D. White, The Russian Revolution 1917–1921. A Short History. London: Edward Arnold, 1994, viii + 312 pp., £12.99 p/b.     

ANALYSIS IN CRISIS PREVENTION

Congress and intelligence policy

Frank J. Smist Jr.: Congress Oversees The United States Intelligence Community 1947–1989 University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1990, 336 p., $24.95 (paper), $49.95 (cloth).

The priest of ambiguity

Tom Mangold: Cold Warrior James Jesus Angleton: The CIA;s Master Spy Hunter Simon &; Schuster Ltd., London, 1991, 403 p., Simon &; Schuster, New York, 1991, 462 p., $24.95. The difference in pagination is due primarily to the spacing in the endnotes. The narrative of the two editions is essentially the same. Several photos appear in the UK but not the U.S. edition.

A conventional approach to counterinsurgency

Francis J. Kelly: The Green Berets in Vietnam, 1961–71 Brassey's, Washington, D.C., 1991,227 p., $12.95.

Pioneering West Germany's intelligence

Walter Imle: Zwischen Vorbehalt und Erfordernis—Eine Historische Studie zur Entstehung des Nachrichtendienstlichen Verfassungsschutzes nach 1945, (Between Reservation and Exigency — A Historical Study of the Origins of German Counterintelligence after 1945) tuduv Studien, Munich, 1984, 000 p., SNA (not available).     

Remittances and Working Poverty

Abstract

This article shows that the level and the predictability of remittances reduce working poverty in receiving economies through their effects on labour market dynamics. It takes advantage of the new cross-country dataset (ILO, KILM 7th edition) containing information on the share of individuals working for less than US$2 per day. To identify the main impacts, the article proposes a novel approach to deal with the endogeneity of remittances and migration. In addition, the results are robust to the possible error in measuring working poverty, to the potential attrition bias, and to the presence of various control variables.     

For the Rest of Asia,America Might Be a Friend,but China Cannot Be an Enemy

In 1990, right after the Berlin Wall fell, NPQ published our Spring edition, titled “The New World Disorder,” about the nationalistic chaos and up‐in‐theair sensibility of that fraught new historical moment. Nearly a quarter of a century later, the regime of globalization that had supplanted the Cold War world of blocs is itself coming apart at the seams. Even Henry Kissinger these days says “the world order is crumbling.” Will this New World Disorder 2.0 revert to a system of conflicting blocs, as during the Cold War, or will we be mature enough to save the interdependence of plural identities that is the foundation of a new global civilization? In this section our contributors offer their perspectives on what the future holds.     

On Japan and China: Taking a Stand,Not Taking Sides

In 1990, right after the Berlin Wall fell, NPQ published our Spring edition, titled “The New World Disorder,” about the nationalistic chaos and up‐in‐theair sensibility of that fraught new historical moment. Nearly a quarter of a century later, the regime of globalization that had supplanted the Cold War world of blocs is itself coming apart at the seams. Even Henry Kissinger these days says “the world order is crumbling.” Will this New World Disorder 2.0 revert to a system of conflicting blocs, as during the Cold War, or will we be mature enough to save the interdependence of plural identities that is the foundation of a new global civilization? In this section our contributors offer their perspectives on what the future holds.     

Is Viktor Orbán Right That Liberal Democracy Has Failed? Is Italy Exhibit #1?

In 1990, right after the Berlin Wall fell, NPQ published our Spring edition, titled “The New World Disorder,” about the nationalistic chaos and up‐in‐theair sensibility of that fraught new historical moment. Nearly a quarter of a century later, the regime of globalization that had supplanted the Cold War world of blocs is itself coming apart at the seams. Even Henry Kissinger these days says “the world order is crumbling.” Will this New World Disorder 2.0 revert to a system of conflicting blocs, as during the Cold War, or will we be mature enough to save the interdependence of plural identities that is the foundation of a new global civilization? In this section our contributors offer their perspectives on what the future holds.     

Putin,Erdogan and Orbán: Band of Brothers?

In 1990, right after the Berlin Wall fell, NPQ published our Spring edition, titled “The New World Disorder,” about the nationalistic chaos and up‐in‐theair sensibility of that fraught new historical moment. Nearly a quarter of a century later, the regime of globalization that had supplanted the Cold War world of blocs is itself coming apart at the seams. Even Henry Kissinger these days says “the world order is crumbling.” Will this New World Disorder 2.0 revert to a system of conflicting blocs, as during the Cold War, or will we be mature enough to save the interdependence of plural identities that is the foundation of a new global civilization? In this section our contributors offer their perspectives on what the future holds.     

Why is Rouhani Angry?

In 1990, right after the Berlin Wall fell, NPQ published our Spring edition, titled “The New World Disorder,” about the nationalistic chaos and up‐in‐theair sensibility of that fraught new historical moment. Nearly a quarter of a century later, the regime of globalization that had supplanted the Cold War world of blocs is itself coming apart at the seams. Even Henry Kissinger these days says “the world order is crumbling.” Will this New World Disorder 2.0 revert to a system of conflicting blocs, as during the Cold War, or will we be mature enough to save the interdependence of plural identities that is the foundation of a new global civilization? In this section our contributors offer their perspectives on what the future holds.     

Will Erdogan's Victory Mark the Rise of Illiberal Democracy?

In 1990, right after the Berlin Wall fell, NPQ published our Spring edition, titled “The New World Disorder,” about the nationalistic chaos and up‐in‐theair sensibility of that fraught new historical moment. Nearly a quarter of a century later, the regime of globalization that had supplanted the Cold War world of blocs is itself coming apart at the seams. Even Henry Kissinger these days says “the world order is crumbling.” Will this New World Disorder 2.0 revert to a system of conflicting blocs, as during the Cold War, or will we be mature enough to save the interdependence of plural identities that is the foundation of a new global civilization? In this section our contributors offer their perspectives on what the future holds.