Canadian aid for the training of public servants in Ghana and Zimbabwe

The Canadian International Development Agency has co-sponsored a number of training programmes for public servants. In this article two of the larger programmes are examined, one with the Government of Ghana, the other with Zimbabwe. The main work with Ghana was undertaken in that country: much of the work with Zimbabwe was undertaken in Canada—for different reasons and with somewhat different results. Over 400 officials have completed the basic courses (generally of 3 months duration). Others have attended shorter courses, training-of-trainers projects, and a workshop for cabinet ministers. In this paper questions are explored about the relevance of such training, the nature of the content and ways to evaluate such activities. Practical issues of aid planning and implementation are raised and, finally, questions of aid targets are examined in the light of the experiences of these programmes.     

Revitalizing public management training in the Americas

The decade of the 1980s signalled major changes within public administration and development-oriented activities. As a consequence of the internationalization of the agendas of practitioners and academics working in these areas, there is today a growing convergence among public policy, public management, public administration and political science. Given the complexity of the public sector cross-nationally, what has become necessary in public management education is the design of programmes that meet specific needs and priorities and which are responsive to very different national settings. This particular case study is centred around one endeavour to achieve more effective interfacing between theory and practice, in the teaching of public management and the design of development programmes in the United States (US). It is based on an assessment of a 10-year co-operative endeavour between the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration and the US Agency for International Development. The outcomes of this project provided not only leverage for important changes in the teaching programmes of schools concerned with international management education but also built a new relationship between government and a non-governmental organization through the contacting out of management development work.     

Education and training for new public management

This article argues for a new approach to educate and train public managers. Several functional requirements regarding knowledge, skills and attitudes are discussed. The status and trends of public management education and training in several countries are reviewed. Situation and recent developments of public management education in Germany are subject of an exemplary case study. Elements of an effective curriculum with an international perspective and steps towards a common understanding of public management education are suggested.     

Rational choice theory,public policy and the liberal state

Liberalism requires a high order of responsible behaviour from its citizens in order to be sustainable. Yet when the modern liberal state makes policy, it is the stereotyped economic man, driven by self-interest and influenced only by carrots and sticks, who occupies center stage. This regulatory approach to public policy can be shown theoretically to give rise to a paradox — the greater the need for regulation, the less likely, because of compliance problems, it is to succeed. It is contended that an alternative approach which explicitly focuses on a broader behavioral understanding of citizens' attitudes and motivations provides a rationale for the use of a much wider range of policy instruments than does the regulatory framework, and is also more in keeping with those values necessary to the sustainability of the liberal state.     

对公共政策制定过程中信息管理的思考

本文首先从系统论角度探讨了公共政策制定过程中信息和对信息进行管理的重要性,进而分析了信息和信息管理的内涵以及公共政策系统中信息管理的原则。最后,本文从信息论的一般信息传播模型的分析入手,指出了公共政策系统信息管理应该从信源、信道和信宿方面注意的问题。     

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.     

Demand for masters of public policy in public service

This piece was written to assist those who lead schools of public policy and administration in evaluating their pedagogies and examining their curricula. The perspectives contained in this piece reflect those of the author, who has spent the last 35 years practicing and leading public policy research and analysis in the Congressional Research Service (CRS)—the public policy agency created by the U.S. Congress for its exclusive use. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of CRS or the Congress.     

Graduate education in public policy

Contemporary social transformation and accelerated politicization are inducing and requiring changes in the epistemological structure and the substantive content of the social and political sciences. To accommodate to and to facilitate these changes there is here proposed an interdisciplinary program of graduate education in Public Policy which is designed (1) to aggregate the most relevant materials and usable generalizations of the sociopolitical sciences and (2) to strike a balance between viable theory and tested experience. Although the curriculum is intended to be primarily contemporaneous and futuristic, it incorporates comparative and historical as well as normative and positivistic materials and methods. A variegated and qualified body of students is expected to be recruited for the proposed program as its principal intellectual and creative component.     

西方公共行政学范式演进的新视角--从"行政国"到"管理国"

传统的公共行政范式遭到了外部环境越来越严重的挑战 ,新的管理途径 (managerialapproach)应运而生并迅即扩展至各国公共部门改革之中。有学者认为 ,公共管理是对原有公共行政模式弊端的一种“扬弃” ,并必将取代传统的公共行政途径。     

A public policy paradox

Over the last two decades policy analysis has flourished, as government has turned increasingly to the services of policy experts. With the refinement of analytic tools vast amounts of data have been made available to decision-makers. These developments have no doubt enhanced the management of many government programs. But some of the most serious policy problems—those involving macroeconomic policy and aspects of foreign policy — have not yielded to solutions. Moreover, the abundance of data has sometimes been overwhelming for decision-makers, a fact that may explain in part the inclination of many to seek simple and painless panaceas for complex problems. Although policy analysis can help the policymaker, it does not provide an avenue of escape from difficult decisions.     

Modernising policy for public value: Learning lessons from the management of bushfires

This article highlights the need for an inclusive and integrated policy‐making model by drawing on the experiences of the bushfire fighting efforts of community, business and government bodies during the bushfires that ravaged North‐East Victoria during January and February of 2003 and the delivery of recovery assistance since the fires. These experiences revealed some shortfalls which militated against delivering public value for the communities affected during and after the fires. A policy framework has been developed in light of these shortfalls and is used here to reveal the ways in which bushfire management policy and practice needs to be ‘modernised’ if arrangements in the future are to deliver public value.¹