Reinventing the Democratic Governance Project through Information Technology? A Growing Agenda for Debate

Postindustrial societies have arrived at a moment of immense democratic and entrepreneurial opportunities that has been made possible by information technology. At the same time, however, these opportunities pose potential threats if they are not debated and planned for in consensually–legitimate ways. This article examines the current problems of representative democracy and the impact of information technology on the current and future quality of democratic governance. Four generic models of "electronic democracy" that are made possible by interactive information Technologies—electronic bureaucracy, information management, populist, and civil society—are analyzed in terms of their applicability and impact. Information technology's impact on the roles, responsibilities, and accountability of citizens, elected representatives, the media, and corporations is also examined. This article proposes strategies for reinventing democratic governance, including recognizing community values, accommodating critical debate, and providing access for citizen participation in policy analysis.     

Partnerships between local governments and community‐based organisations: exploring the scope for synergy

The utility of both local governments and community‐based organisations can be considerably enhanced when these agencies work in partnership with one another. Different roles will be played by local governments and community organisations in different types of partnership arrangements. Distinguishing among these roles helps allocate responsibilities better among the partner agencies, and it is also helpful for scheduling implementation, devising appropriate capacity building programmes and designing suitable accountability mechanisms. An analytical framework to help with these tasks is developed and presented in this article. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Australian Councils Unelected by the Citizens in an Indigenous Setting: The Case of Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory

Within the Australian democratic nation there are towns where the citizens are governed by administrations that have not been democratically elected by the residents. These unique residential centres are termed ‘special purpose towns’ that can be transformed to a permanent community governed by a democratic structure through a process termed normalisation. This paper examines the special purpose mining town of Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory of Australia, which is on the cusp of the normalisation process. The paper outlines the similarities and differences of local government roles and responsibilities with Australian towns or shires that have publicly elected executive members. How Indigenous people are facilitating the normalisation of Nhulunbuy, through cultural perceptions of opportunity, is discussed. A concluding focus challenges well established conventional frameworks endorsing the roles of governments and miners in the normalisation phenomenon.     

Enhancing Space Security by Improving Stakeholder Cooperation

Improving security in space requires the establishment of a consensus among actors on what it means to be safe in space, what kinds of activities should be allowed, and what activities should be prohibited. However, a necessary precursor to the emergence of such consensus is enhanced cooperation among space stakeholders. As of today, leading space actors are moving in often contradictory directions. In addition, the various sectors of the space community—industry, defense, science and manned space—tend to operate in isolation from each other. While there is a recognition of the need for improved cooperation in space, this can be achieved only if actors are made more aware of activities in other sectors that affect (or might affect) them and can craft mutually acceptable solutions with other actors. More efforts are needed to educate space stakeholders across sectors in this regard. By better understanding how the activities of all space actors are inter–related, the international community should be in a position to develop a more integrated concept of space security.     

Certifying a state forestry agency in Quebec: Complementarity and conflict around government responsibilities,indigenous rights,and certification of the state as forest manager

As voluntary third‐party certification systems become an increasingly accepted part of international frameworks for forest governance, some state forestry agencies are following the private sector in seeking certification of their forest management activities. We ask how the roles and responsibilities of state forest management agencies interact with the processes and mechanisms established by certification systems. To answer this question, we review existing research to propose a conceptual framework composed of eight issues of particular relevance to states: regulation, transnationalism, sovereignty disputes, partnerships and competition, mainstreaming, effectiveness, equity, and legitimacy and trust. We then use this framework to analyze experience in Quebec, Canada, where the state agency initially sought certification and then abandoned this plan after facing difficulties meeting the requirements pertaining to indigenous rights. Our framework helps to understand possible complementarities between state and non‐state systems, but also highlights challenges for reconciling state roles and responsibilities under certification.     

Problems of Indigenous Community Councils in North Australia

Since 1978 community councils have been able to directly qualify for Northern Territory government funding. Community councils have therefore become instruments for community governance as well as being responsible for delivering municipal services to Northern Territory Indigenous communities. The effectiveness of these councils are influenced by the community/cultural environment and the strategic environment. A community council plays an important role in negotiations between these two environments. The article observes that there is a strong separation of responsibilities in communities between those relating to municipal services and those relating to community/cultural issues and suggests a realignment of supervisory authority and de‐concentration of responsibilities within community councils.     

Deteriorating public and private sector relations in Central America

The Central American countries are divided by profound political differences. Yet surprising similarities exist in the changing relations between the public and private sectors. Throughout the region, public and private sectors lock into a vicious circle. The inability of the state to provide order and social harmony creates disincentives for the private sector to invest or even to continue existing levels of production. The government responds by increasing its responsibilities at the expense of the private sector. In doing so it assumes risks the private sector refuses, but further alienates the private sector nonetheless.     

Capital united? Business unity in regulatory politics and the special place of finance

While organized business is a key actor in regulatory politics, its influence is often conditional on the level of unity or conflict occurring within the business community at any given time. Most contemporary regulatory policy interventions put pressure on the normal mechanisms of business unity, as they are highly targeted and sector‐specific. This raises the question of how business unity operates across a highly variegated economic terrain in which costs are asymmetric and free‐riding incentives are high. In this paper, we empirically assess patterns of business unity within regulatory policymaking across different regulated sectors. Our analysis utilizes data from hundreds of regulatory policy proposals and business community reactions to them in the telecommunications, energy, agriculture, pharmaceutical, and financial sectors over a variety of institutional contexts. We find considerable empirical support for the “finance capital unity” hypothesis – the notion that the financial sector enjoys more business unity than other regulated sectors of the economy. When the financial sector is faced with new regulations, business groups from other sectors frequently come to its aid.     

A Systems Approach to Performance-Based Management: The National Drug Control Strategy

Government agencies are encouraged to adopt business practices to improve program performance. But there are significant differences between the private and public sectors, both in the nature of the commodities offered and the way people in decision-making roles maximize utility. These differences are likely to affect the success of such endeavors. We examine efforts by the Office of National Drug Control Policy to develop a National Drug Control Strategy. A theoretical model of performance-based management is developed within this context that allows us to identify tensions that are inherent in any system of this kind. Some basic methods for reducing tension are then discussed. Given the generality of the model, it is possible the observations offered here are relevant to other policy problems requiring multi-agency coordination.     

Information Sharing for Infrastructure Risk Management: Barriers and Solutions

There is a public interest in ensuring that infrastructure systems are appropriately protected and prepared for disruptions. While infrastructure protection is usually viewed as a public responsibility, infrastructure risk management actually requires a high degree of cooperation between the public and private sectors, particularly in the sharing of information about risks to infrastructure. Discussions with Chief Security Officers across sectors of the US economy reveal the complexity of the task, as they describe at length the private sector's requirements of multiples types of information about a range of potential threats. While the US government has established many mechanisms for sharing information, barriers remain that inhibit both the private and public partners from obtaining the information needed to protect infrastructure. Overcoming these barriers requires new thinking about the intelligence generation process, the mechanisms and practices upon which the process relies, and the responsibilities of those in the private sector who participate in it.     

Some Thoughts about the Roles, Responsibilities and Future Scope of Auditors-General

This article treats Auditors-General in a generic sense, but focuses on those institutions developed out of the Westminster system of government which undertake financial statement or regularity audits as well as performance or value for money or efficiency-type audits. The audit offices included are those at both federal and state levels in Australia, the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada and New Zealand.
The article is in two parts. The first selectively addresses perceived roles and responsibilities arising out of parliamentary legislation, debates and reviews or inquiries, Auditor-General reports, papers or similar contributions by academic and other interested commentators. The second deals with the future scope for influence, focusing mainly on possible contributions to the improved performance of the public sector including that of audit offices themselves. The latter recognises that auditors-general are very much part of the governance framework within which they operate. While they might be able to influence its development, the framework largely dictates their role, responsibilities and possible scope for action. Reflecting on that framework beyond the next few years might be an inviting conceptual exercise but is unlikely to add much value.     

India's experience—national,community, public or private health?

India, as the largest democracy, second most populous country, ninth largest industrial power and fifteenth poorest nation, has in respect of health care to be considered as a special case among developing countries. Nevertheless, the identification in India, as an alternative to national welfare provision, of opportunities for returning social and economic responsibilities for health care to local communities is important for both developing and developed countries. This article outlines and comments upon recent developments in providing primary health care in rural communities in India. It concludes by examining possible parallels between self-sustaining community health schemes and the search in developed countries for community and personal involvement so as to overcome emergent limitations of professionalized and welfare systems of care.     

Complexity in local stakeholder coordination: decentralization and community water management in Northern Ghana

Stakeholder coordination is a prominent theme in current development discourse. Experience with decentralization and community water management in northern Ghana highlights the complexities of coordinating stakeholders at the local level. In this case, roles and responsibilities must be clarified between legislated sub‐district structures on the one hand, and civic water groups on the other. This is especially important with regard to resolving which party should collect revenues and manage assets and expenditures in the water sector. The key mechanism for addressing these issues is the District Assembly, which is empowered under the decentralization law to coordinate stakeholders, both ‘horizontally’, across social actors, and ‘vertically’, between the national and sub‐district levels. While such local‐level dynamics are indeed complex and challenging, they are at the same time probably more amenable to at least medium‐term resolution than stakeholder competition issues at the national level. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fifteen Years After Decentralization by Devolution: Political‐administrative Relations in Tanzanian Local Government

One of the professed goals of the 1998 Tanzanian Local Government Reform Program, entailing substantial decentralization, was to provide for a democratic administrative set up in local government. Elected local councils were invested with responsibilities for a wide range of policy sectors and services; the local administrative staff, formerly recruited and instructed by central government, would be appointed by and accountable to the local councils. A well‐functioning local politico‐administrative system was considered paramount to improve service delivery and ensure control of decision making by the local community. This article reports on research into the relations between councilors and administrators in two Tanzanian municipalities. Overall, these relations were found to be tense and full of discordance, caused by clashing role perceptions and mutual distrust. The research suggests that the main factor underlying the behavior and attitudes of councilors and administrators is the very system of public administration, which — despite the ambitions expressed in the Local Government Reform Program — remains very centralistic in character. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adjusting Fiscal Decentralization Programs to Improve Service Results in Bulgaria and Romania

Fiscal decentralization programs are works in progress, and expenditure roles often need to be adjusted to improve service delivery. The Balkan countries of Romania and Bulgaria, both needed for accession to the European Union in 2007, must demonstrate positive results from their fiscal decentralization programs in the social services area. Focusing on social service delivery, this paper explores how the design of fiscal decentralization programs, in the form of assigning intergovernmental expenditure roles and responsibilities, affects service performance. The authors conclude that fiscal decentralization requires the proper assignment of authority to match expenditure responsibilities and the policy and administrative capacity to carry them out.     

发达国家大城市危机管理中的社会参与机制

在西方发达国家大城市危机管理实践中,政府和社会、公共部门和私人部门之间的良好合作,普通公民、工商企业组织、社会中介组织在危机管理中的高度参与,已经成为一个中心的事实。本文从城市应急文化的塑造、社区应急机制、志愿者组织的应急功能和城市应急管理中的公私伙伴合作关系等几个方面,探讨了现代发达国家大城市危机管理过程中社会组织和普通公民的参与机制,试图解析西方发达国家大城市危机管理系统中的全社会型危机管理网络的具体运作机制。     

COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS:

Many communities are now involved in collaborations in order to solve problems which no one group or organization can deal with by themselves. They find they must organize in a unique way that allows them to try to solve these problems on equal terms with the public, non-profit and private sectors. These unique collaborations are referred to in this article as network structures. Network structures require the use of different management styles and policy instruments than are used in more typical bureaucratic efforts. This article is based on a study of four community groups in the Los Angeles area which organized in such a way to try to improve conditions of families and children. Each of these collaborations highlights the impact of network structures on the ability to sustain effective collaborative efforts. In addition they point to new roles and changing relationships among government at all levels and those participants outside the government. They also highlight what participants, both inside and outside the public sector, will need to understand about how to organize and mange in these unique settings.     

The Design and Implementation of Cross-Sector Collaborations: Propositions from the Literature

People who want to tackle tough social problems and achieve beneficial community outcomes are beginning to understand that multiple sectors of a democratic society—business, nonprofits and philanthropies, the media, the community, and government—must collaborate to deal effectively and humanely with the challenges. This article focuses on cross-sector collaboration that is required to remedy complex public problems. Based on an extensive review of the literature on collaboration, the article presents a propositional inventory organized around the initial conditions affecting collaboration formation, process, structural and governance components, constraints and contingencies, outcomes, and accountability issues.     

Registered Traveler Program: The Financial Value of Registering the Good Guys

We discuss how the Registered Traveler (RT) program can enhance simultaneously aviation security and passenger convenience. We point out some of the potential weaknesses in the program from both a security and civil liberty perspective. The RT program is a public–private partnership between the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) and the private sector. As in any partnership between private enterprises and the public sector, there are tensions that must be monitored, managed, and resolved. We note that financial distress of a RT service provider will place increased pressure on TSA resources. We review the resources allocated by the public and private sectors and the natural tensions that exist between companies investing capital with the expectation of earning a market rate of return and an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA, with one of its responsibilities being to assure the safety and security of air travel.     

Stakeholder model for community economic development in alleviating poverty in municipalities in South Africa

Governments globally have several responsibilities to its citizen, and one of these responsibilities is the improvement in the living standard and to stimulate social well‐being and sustainability in communities. A meta‐review of over a 100 article was conducted of both the qualitative and quantitative method related to the antecedents to business models, community economic development, and poverty alleviation. The basis for the paper is the proposition of the stakeholder model for implementing Community Economic Development in municipalities for alleviating poverty in South Africa.