Civil Service Reform

Books reviewed:
Stephen E. Condrey and Robert Maranto (eds.), Radical Reform of the CivilService
James P. Pfiffner and Douglas A. Brook (eds.), The Future of Merit: Twenty Years after the Civil Service Reform Act
A.T. Rafiqur Rahman, Reforming the Civil Service for Government Performance: A Partnership Perspective     

论树立服务理念和强化服务意识在服务型政府建设中的作用

服务理念和服务意识是两个相互联系而又不尽相同的概念,它们在建设服务型政府的工作中占有不可忽视的重要位置。其中,树立服务理念是行政观念的创新,而增强服务意识的落脚点则在于行政行为的创新。只有通过经常性的思想政治教育,使各级政府机关和政府机关工作人员牢固地树立服务理念,不断增强服务意识,建设服务型政府的目标才会真正得以实现。     

Cultivating Public Service Motivation through AmeriCorps Service: A Longitudinal Study

The public service motivation literature has helped scholars and practitioners better understand who is attracted to public service and why. However, little is understood about how public service motivation in individuals may be cultivated or how it changes over time. This article uses panel data collected by the Corporation for National and Community Service to track the longitudinal effects of participation in the AmeriCorps national service program on participants’ public service motivation. Findings reveal that participation in AmeriCorps programs had positive effects on participants’ levels of commitment to the public interest and civic awareness immediately after the program; many of these program effects were sustained seven years later. However, when observed in isolation, the comparison group showed significant declines in levels of commitment to public interest and civic awareness over an eight‐year period, suggesting that public service motivation may initially decline upon entry into a public service career.     

Unified Service Planning and Budgeting: The Next Generation of Service Management

Like many large cities, Minneapolis faces the challenges of declining intergovernmental revenue, federal and state restriction on actions, and increased service demands. However, unlike most other places, Minneapolis does not suffer from severe fiscal stress. It has managed this feat by making changes in the organizational structure, planning, and budgeting process. This allowed the development of a comprehensive and coordinated approach to service delivery in the city.     

劳动社会学视野中的服务业研究

在我国经济和社会转型中,大力发展服务业成为国民经济的发展方向。目前,我国学者对服务业的研究主要集中在经济学领域,从社会学视角开展的服务业研究尚不多见。鉴于此,梳理了20世纪下半叶以来西方劳动社会学对服务业研究的相关成果。这些研究集中讨论了两方面的问题:第一,服务业劳动是什么?即服务业劳动过程的特点研究;第二,谁在从事服务业?即服务业劳动者的社会分化与分层。试图通过对既有研究的介绍和梳理,为我国社会学者参与服务业研究提供参考。     

服务型政府建设探讨

建设服务型政府,根本在于坚持为民服务,实行民主行政,建立责任政府;关键在于完善服务型政府体系;重点在于加强制度建设,优化服务流程,突出公共性。     

Spirituality and Public Service

The common pronouncement of a career in public service as a "calling" echoes with a decidedly spiritual chord. However, the spiritual roots of public service have been ignored in much of the public administration scholarship. This essay examines the empirical connection between individual spirituality and participation in public service occupations. Data from the 1998 General Social Survey are analyzed to determine whether those in public service occupations are more spiritual than persons in non–public service occupations. The findings indicate that individuals in public service occupations, especially government-related ones, are in fact more spiritual in their attitudes than others. Moreover, belief in the notions of transcendence and compassion for others are more pronounced in public service employees. Finally, the experience of interconnectedness and life meaning is greater for those in the public service.     

Visions of National Service

While national service enjoys broad support across the political spectrum, the actual goals of programs such as AmeriCorps remain somewhat amorphous. Based on a set of interviews with both experienced. practitioners and key thought leaders in the field, four competing visions of national service are detailed. The article suggests that national service has alternatively been seen as a way to promote an active and engaged citizenship, accelerate the personal growth of the young people in the programs, build social capital in communities, and meet critical social needs through public work. These four competing visions can and do coexist in practice, which helps to explain the widespread and enduring popularity of the idea of national service in America.

论高校图书馆特色服务

论述了新时期高校图书馆开展特色服务的必要性与具体内容,如学科服务、定题服务、个性化服务、精品化服务等等,以及开展特色服务的保证措施.     

Keeping It Public: Defending Public Service Values in a Customer Service Age

Notwithstanding the persistence and proliferation of calls to serve "customers," these relationships incorporate distinctively public priorities and performance expectations—priorities and expectations often shaped by a desire to reduce customer vulnerabilities and prevent seller strategies that are deemed unacceptable. The authors examine these distinctively public relationships—between professionals and clients, guardians and wards, facilitators and citizens, and regulators and subjects. By acknowledging that public administration often involves relationships with multiple constituencies and that opportunities to serve them are bounded by particular legal and institutional contexts, this essay provides a pragmatic account of strategic opportunities to defend public service values.     

The New Public Service Revisited

The New Public Service describes a set of norms and practices that emphasize democracy and citizenship as the basis for public administration theory and practice. This article revisits some of the core arguments of the New Public Service and examines how they have been practiced and studied over the past 15 years. The authors conclude that neither the principles of the New Public Service nor those of the New Public Management have become a dominant paradigm, but the New Public Service, and ideas and practices consistent with its ideals, have become increasingly evident in public administration scholarship and practice.     

Constituency Service in Multi-level Democracies

What are the patterns of legislator responsiveness to constituents in multi-level democracies, and what explains them? Previously, comparative research has been hampered by a lack of theory and a lack of data. The article first theorizes how constituency service may be explained by conventional arguments, such as electoral motivations and role orientations. It then considers how regionalization specifically might affect service responsiveness. Using data from the PARTIREP survey of legislators in eight multi-level democracies and six unitary democracies, the article demonstrates that national legislators devote less time to constituency service in multi-level than in unitary democracies; and that regional legislators devote more time than national legislators in multi-level democracies. While conventional arguments are important, the specific effects of regionalization are also significant in determining service responsiveness, establishing an agenda for future research of constituency service as a significant area in the study of multi-level democracy.