Environmental dimensions of managing public budgets and public enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study examines the nature of the environment in which public budgets and public enterprises are managed in developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. It develops a model of the environmental dimensions in the general environment and dimensional components in the task environment of public budgeting and public enterprise management including the economic, political, socio-cultural, and technological dimension which determine public budget and public enterprise management in developing countries like those in Sub-Saharan Africa. The implications of those environmental dimensions and their components are evaluated for budgetary processes and budgetary outcomes in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa - Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. The impact of economic dimensions in inducing repetitive budgeting in the budgetary processes of developing countries was highlighted. The results of the analysis of expenditure patterns in these countries tend to support the greater strength of the economic functional dimension in influencing budgetary outcomes. The implications of the environmental dimensions of the model for the management of public enterprises was also investigated. Numerous dimensional components of the major dimensions of the model developed in the study were found to have had an impact on the development of the public enterprise sector in developing countries like those in Sub- Saharan Africa. Moreover, the performance of public enterprises was strongly linked to the dimensions and components of the model. The interactive effects of public enterprise management on public budgeting in developing countries is also addressed as a consequence of the environmental model. Reform efforts must contend with altering the environmental state depicted in the model or accommodating to it.     

Is the East European “underclass” feminized?

Results of national surveys carried out in East-European countries convincingly showed that after the fall of communism the gender gap in earnings remained substantial. Following the same analytical framework here I explore a range of issues concerning the gender gap in membership in what I define as the “underclass” in 6 post-communist societies. The basic question is to determine whether or not such a gap exits. I find considerable cross-national variation in the odds of female/male membership in the underclass: women in Poland, Russia and Hungary appear to be most heavily over-represented in this category, while in Bulgaria and Slovakia, the effect of gender does not exist. In addition, the explanation for this gap cannot be found in the intergenerational transmission of poverty, in differences in marital status, and other social–demographic attributes commonly employed in quantitative studies. It is only the lower educational status of women, living in rural areas, and older age, which significantly interact with relatively higher representation of women in the underclass. After controlling for several characteristics of a person’s socio–economic position I found that in four countries, namely in Poland, Russia, Romania and Hungary, a statistically significant net effect of gender remains which provides solid evidence for the feminization of the underclass in these societies.     

Curbing Corruption in Government Procurement in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Constraints

Corruption in the government procurement of goods, services and public works has been commonplace in Southeast Asian states (with the exception of Singapore) over many years. It has affected the provision of vital services and infrastructure and has been a key factor in undermining standards of governance. In recent years, reforms have been introduced in the region to combat corruption in the procurement process. However, to date their impact in many of the states has been at best limited. The article will consider the nature, types and extent of corruption in government procurement in the various states of Southeast Asia, following which it will discuss the reforms that have been introduced to address the problem. The article will then assess the limited impact of the reforms, and discuss the two reasons for this. The first reason was that the reforms were not sufficiently comprehensive and precise in tackling the entire spectrum of corruption in procurement and in creating the necessary legal powers for watchdog and enforcement bodies when dealing with such practices. Second, there were serious weaknesses in the implementation of these reforms, especially in translating legal provisions into everyday practice. Of particular importance are the limited capacity and status of watchdog and enforcement bodies, and the extent to which they are also compromised through corruption. The conclusion will consider the lessons to be learnt in tackling procurement corruption from the experience of the states of Southeast Asia and the challenges they face in pursuing further reform in the future.     

Disaster Governance in the Philippines: Issues,Lessons Learned,and Future Directions in the Post-Yolanda Super Typhoon Aftermath

The article analyzes the importance of disaster governance as an emerging paradigm in the context of the post-Yolanda Super Typhoon devastation in the Philippines. The article offers various lessons which may be heeded in times of disaster in which various stakeholders of governance are involved with. Consequently, the article posits future challenges and directions hurled in the conduct of disaster governance in the Philippines in terms of policies and programs. Finally, the article enunciates that both the national government and local government must play an active role in disaster governance through policy-making and policy implementation changes in both theory and praxis.     

Organizational Citizenship Levels of Physicians in Public Hospitals

The aim of this study is to define organizational citizenship levels of physicians working in public hospitals. The population of the study consists of the physicians employed in the hospitals run by the Ministry of Health in Istanbul. The Organizational Citizenship Level Scale was used for the collection of data. It was found that the participants’ organizational citizenship levels were the highest in the “conscience” subsection and the lowest in the “praising the organization” subsection. Findings of this study provide clear information for the decision-makers and hospital managers in developing working conditions of physicians in public hospitals.     

PROFESSIONALISM AND PUBLIC POLICY MAKING IN GREECE: THE INFLUENCE OF ENGINEERS IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORMS

The influence of Professionals in the formulation of public policies has been an issue of scientific research in the past decade. In this article we deal with a less examined as of this issue. Professional influence is analysed in the context of Greek public policy, where the intensely centralized administration is dominated by the demands of political clientelism. Focusing on the case of the influence of peers in local government reform between 1974 and 1989, the article reveals the role of Trofessiondism in the hesitant decentraiization of functions and resources to local authorities and the initiation of institutions that have allowed the birth and development of new organizations at the central and the local level. Given the shift towards partydirected patronage and the intense party politiciza-tion of professional and trade organizations, the central state aparatus and the local authorities in post-dictatorship Greece, professional influence in putlic policies is seen to be closely related to the rise of professionals in party hierarchies. The catalytic role of professionals in the promotion of reform policies reducing organizational diversity and fragmentation is understood within the context of the contradiction between the need to adapt state structures and practices in a rapidl changing international environment and the preservation of traditional political and acyministrative forces in key positions of the power structure.     

Memories of Nehemia

This article is both a biographical sketch of the career of Nehemia Levtzion and a reminiscence. Levtzion grew up in Israel during the period of its founding. He early chose to study Islamization in Africa and became the leading interpreter of the history of Islam in West Africa. Though often called on to assume administrative responsibilities in the Israeli educational system, he maintained a commitment to scholarship. The small conferences he held in Jerusalem over the years often involved a re-thinking of basic problems in the history of Islam in Africa and in the larger Muslim world. He was particularly interested in processes of conversion and the dynamics of change. Though he described many varieties of Islam and different levels of Islamization, he never accepted the notion of a distinctively Africa Islam. He saw instead processes that were similar throughout the Muslim world.     

Printmedia poll reporting in Poland: Poll as news in Polish parliamentary campaigns, 1991–2007

Information about the support given by the public opinion to political actors has become a constant element of the public debate in Poland after the fall of Communism. Very soon polls became an argument in debates, a premise, or a way to justify decisions. At the same time they were criticized both by politicians and journalists convinced that polls can significantly influence the election results. But the fact was not noticed in Poland that all debates about the influence of polls on election outcomes should be preceded by a discussion of the way they are presented in the media. The present article joins this debate by subjecting to analysis the polls published in the Polish press during parliamentary campaigns in the dimensions of the role they played during the recent several years, the quality of methodological information, and of the way the polls were used in the media.As opposed to European and American analyses, no improvement in the conformity to standards of minimal disclosure in newspapers’ reporting of public opinion polls was noticed, although—like in other countries—a dramatic increase in the number of polls reported was observed.     

From agricultural modernisation to agri-food globalisation: The waning of national development in Thailand

Agriculture has been central to accounts of Thailand's modernisation and the rise of the national development project between the 1940s and the 1970s. However, the role of agriculture in the waning of national development is rarely explored critically in the Thai context. This paper focuses on agriculture and the role of the state in the shift from national development to globalisation. The first part of the paper examines the beginnings of Thailand's modern agricultural sector, before turning to the state-sponsored diversification of agriculture in the 1950s. The paper locates shifting state responses to agriculture in the late 1950s and 1960s in the context of specific political and historical social forces, before exploring the emergence of agri-food exports in the 1970s and the rise of agribusiness in the 1980s and 1990s. The paper concludes by commenting on the significance of the Thai state's role in the national development project and the globalisation project.     

THE DYNAMICS OF DEVOLUTION PROCESSES IN LEGALISTIC COUNTRIES: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE IN THE ITALIAN PUBLIC SECTOR

The devolution of authority from central to regional and local governments is a widespread trend in many countries. Differences in the outcomes of devolution reforms are often significant, between countries as well as within a country. The work reported in this paper assumes that the dynamics of the implementation process and the way it is affected by the national tradition of governance and by the features of the politico‐administrative system is important in explaining such differentiation. The paper investigates devolution in Italy and proposes explanations for the substantial differentiation of outcomes that can be observed. The case of devolution in agriculture in Lombardy, investigated in depth in the article, is striking for the magnitude and rapidity of change as well as for the way the reallocation of the workforce to the lower levels of government has occurred. This case study provides the basis for some theorizations about the dynamics of devolution processes in countries that have a legalistic administrative tradition, especially those nations which have a ‘Napoleonic’ administrative tradition.     

Changes in earnings inequality and labour market segmentation: Metropolitan Santiago 1969–78

Changes in earnings inequality are examined in this article through an eclectic approach allowing for differences in human capital earnings function by labour market segments. Several findings are of interest. The first are the components of earnings inequality changes, these being, in order of importance: changes in the within segments inequality, changes in the relative share of the informal sector segment, and changes in relative income between segments. Second, these changes are found to be the result of labour market liberalisation policies such as abolition of both minimum wages and labour turnover legislation in the formal sector, the promotion of self‐employed activities in the informal sector, and, the selective mobility pattern between segments.     

Poverty in Bangladesh: Measurement,decomposition and intertemporal comparison

This article, using the methodology developed by Foster, Greer, and Thorbecke to measure and decompose poverty, provides estimates of the levels of poverty in rural and urban areas in Bangladesh. It investigates in the context of Bangladesh, the most powerful effect of poverty in terms of a shortfall in food for daily calorie intake by the poor. It provides intertemporal comparison of poverty and its decomposition among subgroups. It also makes comparisons between the results obtained in this study with those currently available. The results of the study show a significant improvement in poverty situations in rural areas from 1982 to 1986. The article also discusses the policy implications of its findings.     

After Oslo and Utøya: A Shift in the Balance Between Security and Liberty in Norway?

The article addresses the challenges a society faces to when trying to balance security and liberty after a terrorist attack. A main question is to what extent attitudes toward counterterror measures changed in Norway after the massive terror attacks in July 2011. A hypothesis that people will be more in favor of such measures after a terror attack is examined using data from two surveys—one conducted in 2006 and one in August 2011, with additional results from a survey in 2012. The Norwegian response after the 2011 attacks is compared to the response to the same questions in the United States shortly after 11 September 2001. A main finding is that in Norway, in contrast to the United States, levels of support for counterterror measures declined immediately after the attacks. The authors argue that this can be explained partly by the different levels of trust in the two countries, and partly by differences in the political executive's framing of the crisis. In 2012, support of counterterror measures in Norway has risen to pre-2011 levels. This is related to the changed discourse after the publication of the report from the 22 July Commission.     

Sectoral linkages at the beginning of the 21st century: The role of Polish economy in global production structures

This paper provides a first attempt in analyzing the role of Polish economy in the production structure of the global economy in the early years of the 21st century. For the purpose of this analysis, we propose a new approach in which two most important aspects of interindustry linkages in a global input-output model are examined. Contrary to previous studies focused on output-oriented key sector analyses in post-communist CEE economies, we focus on a fundamental policy target variable – income per gross output. In order to analyze the issues in question in a dynamic framework, the empirical results are based on the 2000 and 2014 global intercountry input-output tables for the 28 EU countries as well as 15 other major countries in the world.     

THE VALUE OF THE REMUNERATION OF HIGH CIVIL SERVANTS IN BRITAIN IN THE 20TH CENTURY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

The article traces a large real and comparative decline in the rewards of high civil servants in Great Britain over the 20th century, accelerating since about 1970. It relates this to developments in the market for ‘high quality’ graduates and to changes in public and governmental attitudes which have affected the size, organization and role of the civil service. It discusses possible causes of the decline in top rewards in terms of three explanatory approaches suggested by social scientists – the ‘institutional’, the ‘cultural’, and the views of the ‘Chicago School’. Finally, following an examination of changes in the way senior British civil servants are now recruited and remunerated, it considers possible outcomes in terms of effects on the part they can play in the governmental process.     

Problem of early elections and dissolution power in the Czech Republic

Theory of parliamentary regimes presumes that parliament can express vote of no confidence in government. On the other hand executive power (government or head of state) is endowed with right to dissolve the parliament. However, these “doomsday devices” are not in balance in many parliamentary regimes, including the Czech Republic. On the basis of a comparative analysis of dissolution provisions in the constitutions of European states the article argues that the government in the Czech Republic should be given the right to dissolve the lower chamber at least in case that the latter expresses vote of no confidence in the former.     

Funding Supported Accommodation: Financial and Administrative Implications of Reforming Housing Benefit

Government proposals to reform the funding of support services in Britain require local authorities to take stock of support schemes in their areas before a new single support budget will replace existing arrangements in April 2003. In the course of the transition, local authorities will also need to scrutinize supported accommodation charges in order to remove charges for services that are unlawfully paid for by Housing Benefit. This paper highlights likely problems in the identification of support schemes and in the estimation of the costs of services. The proposed tightening of the calculation of Housing Benefit will reduce entitlements to the majority of claimants in supported accommodation, many of whom are amongst the poorest people in the country. Efforts must be made to ensure that claimants facing a reduction in their payments are not faced by steady, or even rising, housing costs. In particular, tenants in schemes, which receive no funding under the new single budget, must be protected. The paper discusses the proposals' contribution to bringing housing and community care policies closer together.     

Suicidal behavior in the Ukraine, 1988-1998

This report studies the available data concerning suicide rates in the Ukraine and points to the importance of appropriate monitoring of suicides and attempted suicides. It illustrates the necessity of collecting this information and of developing "The Ukrainian National Program on Suicide Prevention." Unfortunately, suicide research and publications about suicide rates were prohibited in the former Soviet Union, so some of the data about suicidal behavior in the Ukraine is incomplete. We used the official suicide death statistics of the Ukraine from the Center of Statistics (Ukrainian Ministry of Health) for the period 1988-1998. The overall rate of suicide in the Ukraine is relatively high. Official statistics in the Ukraine show that there were 29.6 suicides per 100,000 population in 1998. The frequency of completed suicide differs in the various regions of the country, suicides being more frequent in the industrially developed regions and in the rural areas of the country than in the cities. In the western part of the Ukraine the frequency of suicide is relatively low (11.1 per 100,000). Between 1988 and 1997 the suicide rate increased by 57%. In 1998 the suicide rate for women was approximately five times lower than that for men.     

Karamojan politics: extension of state power and formation of a subordinate political elite in northeastern Uganda

State-making processes that occur in peripheral areas and the role that local political elites play in such processes have not been adequately explored by scholars. This article investigates these important phenomena through the lens of the Ugandan state’s presence in Karamoja, in the country’s northeast, which until the early years of the twenty-first century was very limited. Rapid extension of the power of the Ugandan state in the region, upon which the country’s rulers have embarked in the last decade, has radically altered existing governance arrangements in Karamoja and led to the formation of a subordinate Karamojan political elite. This elite has been instrumental in government efforts to establish control over the region’s population and shaped this state-making process in important ways.     

Measuring the Impact of New Public Management and European Integration on Recruitment and Training int he UK Civil Service

This article investigates the impact which the institutional development of the European Union (EU) and the new public management (NPM) have had on the process of recruitment and training of senior public officials in the United Kingdom between 1970 and 1995. Information provided by directors of personnel and training has enabled the extent of change observed in three government departments – Agriculture, Transport and Health – to be measured on a numerical scale. This is combined with a historical analysis rooted in practitioner experience. The evidence from both sources suggests that whereas NPM pressures have had a relatively similar impact on recruitment and training practices in all three departments, the response to EU pressure is much stronger in the Ministry of Agriculture than in the Departments of Transport and Health. The EU impact in Agriculture is particularly strong in respect of recruitment and career progression, the only area and the only department in which our index suggests that policy has been more heavily influenced by European pressures than by NPM. These findings reflect the strength of the political commitment to NPM and the power of the central departments in imposing it across Whitehall; and in the case of Agriculture the development of a cadre of senior officials who have almost all had experience of working in or with the EU institutions.