Public Values in Public–Private Partnerships

Although public–private partnerships (PPPs) are frequently analyzed and lauded in terms of efficiency, their impact on public values is often neglected. As a result, there is little empirical evidence supporting or rejecting the claim that PPPs have a negative effect on public values. This case study provides valuable insight into the relationship between public values in PPPs and the circumstances affecting the degree to which public values are upheld. Research findings demonstrate that whether public values are at stake in PPPs cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. Rather, public values can be threatened, safeguarded, or even strengthened depending on the project phase and the specific facet of the public value under scrutiny. Insight into which circumstances influence the safeguarding of public values in DBFMO (design–build–finance–maintain–operate) projects unravels the strengths and weaknesses of PPPs in terms of public values, providing public managers with a starting point for optimization.     

The military and bureaucracy in Greece – 1967–1974

This article attempts to examine and analyse the Greek military regime's (1967-1974) relations with the country's administrative apparatus. After briefly tracing the historical and ecological dimensions of these two institutions the article analyses their relations during the 7-year period on the basis of Eckstein and Gurr's superordinate-subordinate theoretical framework. The relevant data, which include interviews with senior civil servants as well as military officers, indicate that due to the nature of their profession, which emphasizes discipline and strict subordination, the military as political governors create an atmosphere to which the less regimented and more give-and-take-oriented bureaucracies have difficulty becoming accustomed. Military regimes and administrators do not enjoy the best of relations.     

Public–Private Partnerships and the Public Accountability Question

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are growing in popularity as a governing model for delivery of public goods and services. PPPs have existed since the Roman Empire, but their expansion into traditional public projects today raises serious questions about public accountability. This article examines public accountability and its application to government and private firms involved in PPPs. An analytical framework is proposed for assessing the extent to which PPPs provide (or will provide) goods and services consistent with public sector goals of effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. Six dimensions—risk, costs and benefits, political and social impacts, expertise, collaboration, and performance measurement—are incorporated into a model that assists public managers in improving partnerships’ public accountability.     

Towards a management renewal of the United Nations — Part II

In the first part of this article, the authors examined the historical and structural factors constraining the effectiveness of the Organization's capacity to carry out increasingly critical global mandates. In a second, concluding part of the article, the authors will suggest a strategy for UN reform and a process for carrying forward a ‘renewal exercise’ to equip the Organization for its role beyond the year 2000. Effective UN administrative reform, unlike so many previous attempts that were characterized by tinkering with its structure or taking isolated measures to improve performance, will require a comprehensive overhaul of, inter alia, the following: the professional management environment and culture, personnel, financial and supportive information management and technologies, the establishment of an effective oversight function and the development of operational management capabilities. The proposed post-50th anniversary ‘renewal exercise’ brings together the governmental, senior management and staff levels of the Organization, along with outside experts, to develop a long-term strategy and an integrated and practically implementable action plan for facilitating UN administrative reform. The exercise would also be guided by global experience and look to its success in charting the future by involving both member states and UN staff. Only such an approach will ensure that accountability for results is effectively in-built.     

Labor, Democracy, Utility, and Mill's Critique of Private Property

Scholars have long debated whether John Stuart Mill became a socialist, as he claimed in his Autobiography . This article strengthens the case that he did, ironically, by examining Mill's longstanding adherence to a labor-based justification for private property in means of production. Even while he developed sharp criticisms of capitalist property relations based on democratic principles of individuality and freedom, Mill held on to this labor justification, which partly offset his growing socialist sympathies. But relatively late in life, Mill reconsidered and discarded the labor justification and began to argue for a more explicit utilitarian analysis of the relevant questions, thus bolstering the importance of his democratic critiques of the system of private property. A recognition of the slow gestation of Mill's views on the labor justification enriches our understanding of his thought on socialism versus capitalism and provides an insight into how he applied utilitarianism in a practical context.     

Administrative Accountability in the ‘Westminster’ Democracies: Towards a New Conceptual Framework

Understandings of administrative accountability in the “Westminster” democracies remain too closely linked to the institutional arrangements through which accountability has traditionally been exacted in these countries. This has prevented a full appreciation of the nature and extent of changes which have been under way for some time. The article argues that a refined concept of accountability and five subordinate “conceptions” of accountability, corresponding to distinctive sets of institutional arrangements, are needed to comprehend the relevant changes. The identification of multiple options for administrative accountability, in turn, raises questions about how the different accountability systems are to be chosen and combined to maximize accountability without impairing administrative effectiveness.