REINVENTING LOCAL GOVERNMENT? SOME EVIDENCE ASSESSED

Osborne and Gaebler's Reinventing Government offers a powerful image of a revolution in government. This article explores some of the assumptions of that seminal work as they relate to the nature of the change process. Parallels are drawn with the debate on the nineteenth-century revolution in government, and Osborne and Gaebler's work is judged unlikely to survive the critical perspective of history. Their work may nonetheless be taken as providing a research agenda for the study of the recent extensive changes in British local government. To this end, the findings of the two major surveys of organizational change conducted by the Local Government Management Board are examined to see if such a revolution is indeed occurring. The conclusion is drawn that some, but by no means all, of Osborne and Gaebler's propositions are supported by this evidence, although their account of how change has come about is rejected.     

REINVENTING THE AMERICAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: REFORM REDUX OR REAL CHANGE?

Reinventing government in the United States is the most recent of several efforts to reform public organizations and management. A cornerstone of the Clinton Administration's agenda for change, reinvention is proceeding on several levels. One is that of political symbolism and rhetoric: reduce waste, eliminate unnecessary programmes, and improve efficiency. Another level is found in the reinvention laboratories created throughout the federal government. Here the focus is on quality, customer service, streamlining processes and procedures, and eliminating unnecessary rules and regulations. A third level is found in policy and system changes; here the emphasis is on examining broad functions, decentralizing major activities, and providing legislative support for necessary changes.
Implementation of reinvention activities has been decentralized and loosely monitored. Many of the initiatives in the reinvention laboratories are difficult to track and analyse; changes at this level do appear, however, to be extensive and diverse. Broader legislative changes have not been so extensive and the Clinton Administration has been slow to introduce key legislative packages. The role of Congress is unclear.
Despite uneven progress and failure to ask key policy and implementation questions, reinvention is creating significant change in the federal government. The outcome of those changes and the long-term future of reinvention depend on the continued commitment of the members of the public service, as well as much clearer political support and will.     

HOW THE REINVENTING GOVERNMENT MOVEMENT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION WAS EXPORTED FROM THE U.S. TO OTHER COUNTRIES

From an academic point of view, Reinventing Government (RG) is a weak book. But the judgment of the academic community leaves with an interesting problem:How can we account for the relative influence that RG ideas have acquired over public management practices and for the enthusiasm with which those ideas have often been received by bureaucratic reformers in many countries? To answer this question, the article develops an analysis that proceeds in two stages. In the first section, I show how RG ideas gained ascendancy in political circles because they altered the terms of discourse about government management and made new kinds of coalitions possible. The second part looks at the structure of the global management consulting industry to show how the consultants who advised the Clinton administration were able to rely on already existing international network of American-based consulting organizations through which they could preach their Reinvention gospel around the globe. The American domination of the world management consulting market; coupled with the growing use by states of external consulting services as a source of advice on management issues, allowed consultants to carry RG ideas into the heart of the policy process.     

JUDICIAL REVIEW: A WAY OF CONTROLLING GOVERNMENT?

Recent concern among administrators about the effect of judicial review on their work is exaggerated. The cases show that judges are aware of the pitfalls of too much judicial intervention. Judges do not control government. To understand their role, we must distinguish three different judicial techniques (here called directing, limiting and structuring) which are usually conflated under the title of 'control'. In doing their jobs, judges generate principles to guide administrative procedures and judge their legality. That can make a useful contribution to structuring administrative decision-making, but only if the civil service is as sensitive to the potential value of judicial review as judges are to its possible dangers.     

CHARGING FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES: A COHERENT PHILOSOPHY

This article reviews and critically appraises the alternative rationales and methodologies for local authority charging practice which have been proposed in the past. It goes on to advocate a charging rationale based on customized value-added services. This is argued to be a coherent charging philosophy which can realistically fit into the evolving policy, management and decision-making framework of local government. It allows for individual choices within a wider framework of collective choice and provision of services. It is capable of blending efficiency and equity criteria within a system of practical charging policies for local government services. Whilst retaining consistency of rationale, the proposal can be moulded to suit both the objectives and the particular characteristics of individual services. Practical examples are given, specific criticisms addressed and implementation is considered. The essential point is that it is compatible with the institutional framework within which it is applied.     

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A SURVEY

ABSTRACT

Executive education is a growth industry in the United States. Executive education programs and, more particularly, the variety of teaching techniques they use, promise to be key issues in the field of public administration in as much as they may be precursors of techniques and technology that will be used in more traditional teaching venues. This study reports the results of a survey of executive education programs conducted in 1998 under the auspices of the South Carolina Executive Institute. The survey covered four areas – curriculum, participants, faculty, and program administration. We conclude that the immediate future of executive education likely will be marked by a continuing emphasis on customization, experimental learning, and rigorous evaluation of the results. Two areas in which there are likely to be more significant departures from existing practices in public sector executive education are program alliances and the use of new communications and information technology.     

THE LIMITS OF JOINED-UP GOVERNMENT: TOWARDS A POLITICAL ANALYSIS

Joined-up government has featured prominently on the agenda of the New Labour government in the UK. However, the politics of joining-up remain under-explored, with disproportionate emphasis on the technical and managerial dimensions of the challenge. This paper argues that political value conflicts form an essential part of the explanation for the replication of 'silos' within city strategic partnerships, the joining-up institution of choice at the local scale. A study of the local politics of social inclusion in the British cities of Dundee and Hull revealed a strong partnership ethos. However, this ethos sustained only a shallow consensus over abstract goals, at the same time legitimating the avoidance of political value conflicts. Thematic partnerships comprising interest group clusters with different political values therefore tended to replicate silo practices. The paper argues, consequently, that the consensual partnership ethos caused the displacement of value conflicts, in turn causing fragmented governance. It concludes with three propositions for further research.     

THE OMBUDSMAN IN BRITAIN: A QUALIFIED SUCCESS IN GOVERNMENT REFORM

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration has not been the dismal failure forecast by critics at the time the office was established in 1967. One alleged defect — not criticizing the substance of administrators' discretionary decisions — is characteristic to a large degree of other admired ombudsmen. Recruiting the Commissioner and his investigators from the civil service has not had expected harmful effects. On the other hand, the office has fallen short of the performance of other ombudsmen with regard to the public's access to the Commissioner (the MP filter), the efficiency of his investigative methods, and certain limitations on his jurisdiction. Failure so far to remove these defects appears to be the result of inadequate comparative research and analysis in support of reformers' proposals, the overly cautious and consensual style of civil service policy formulation, and opposition from members of existing institutions (MPS and the officers of civil service unions) who mistakenly believe that their complaint handling activities are threatened by proposed changes.     

SYMPOSIUM OVERVIEW: CONCEPTUALIZING NEW GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENTS

This symposium, ‘Conceptualizing New Governance Arrangements', takes up the challenge of refining governance theory to better integrate work in several disciplines, most notably politics, public administration and law. To this end, we argue for a theoretical framework that profiles three key dimensions of governance: institutional, political and regulatory. This framework, in our view, offers new insights into the nature and operation of various governance arrangements, and offers the potential to assess and measure change within such arrangements over time. After describing our methodology for selecting and analysing the case studies profiled in the symposium, we introduce each of the articles that apply our three‐dimensional governance framework. These articles employ the framework to consider a variety of contemporary governance scenarios that vary widely by sector (environmental, climate change, forestry and education policy) and level of analysis (sub‐national, national, and bi‐national).     

PARALLEL STRUCTURES IN THE EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRACY: A PROBLEMATIC QUICK FIX

This paper investigates the proliferation of parallel structures – also known as project implementation units (PIUs) and technical offices (TOs) – within the Egyptian public administration system and the pressures since the 1990s that have led to their increasing numbers, including the current political turmoil. To determine whether these structures are a viable tool for the implementation of reform in Egypt, the paper examines international experience, analyses the literature, and assesses the results of a brief survey of staff working in the traditional bureaucracy and those in parallel structures. The paper concludes that while PIUs may sometimes be necessary for initiating reform in the short term, long term sustainable reform requires genuine commitment of both donor and recipient governments to improve governance, build capacity within the traditional national institutions, apply performance management with a focus on policy impacts, and adopt alternative mechanisms in implementing development projects such as general budget support.     

ANALYSING POLITICAL CHOICE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY APPROACH

Despite the centralizing trends which have characterized the 1980s, local authorities have displayed considerable skill in their pursuit of policies designed to cope with effects of the government's grant abatements and other, legislative restrictions. Indeed, it is paradoxical that a continued diversity in response has characterized the strategies of various local authorities over the period. However, our theoretical understanding has often failed to keep pace with the reality of a still vibrant local government. Even those 'output' studies which identified the different influences at work invariably failed to explain why localities diverged in their responses. Similarly, the expository power of sophisticated intergovernmental relations (IGR) models has not fully accounted for such divergence. This research builds on the IGR model but explicitly acknowledges the importance of a 'localities effect' in shaping the application of the model in specific local authorities. This is facilitated by a comparative case study approach based on evidence from Glasgow and Liverpool.     

GOVERNMENT LEGITIMACY AND THE LABOUR MARKET: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES

This article addresses the recent claim that cross-national policy variations reflect in part differences in institutional origins and state characteristics. It provides a detailed analysis of how states institutionalized public employment exchanges. The authors argue that public employment exchanges will shape the legitimacy of government intervention in the labour market, and thus affect the environment for subsequent labour market policy. Two measures of legitimacy are used. First, the attitude of employers and trades unionists toward exchanges. Second, the role of exchanges in administering unemployment benefits. Cross-national differences in exchanges' legitimacy contribute to an explanation of why different states have different labour market policies.     

GOVERNMENT CALLING: PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION AS AN ELEMENT IN SELECTING GOVERNMENT AS AN EMPLOYER OF CHOICE

The article assesses public service motivation as a possible influence in the attractiveness of government as an employer by embedding it into a person‐organization fit framework. First, a theoretical framework is developed and all relevant concepts are discussed. In addition, a set of hypotheses concerning the research question is developed. A sample of 1714 final year masters students demonstrates that the presence of public service motivation positively correlates with the preference for prospective public employers. For government organizations that display a high degree of publicness, the effect of public service motivation as a predictor for employer preference is stronger. Next to building a middle range theory on public service motivation, the article also reveals that public service motivation is present at a pre‐entry level.