THE CONCEPT OF PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AND THE AUSTRALIAN STATE IN THE 1980s

Abstract: The adoption of the discourse of management by Australian public services in the 1980s can be seen as a cultural revolution. Results-oriented management, subordinated to economic considerations, is the dominant approach. The upper levels of the public services have been remodelled in the form of a technically-oriented elite recruited on merit, defined in terms of higher education credentials, drawing a technical intelligentsia, or "new class", into public employment. Although "people and process" approaches, espoused in particular by women, find a place in the new culture, they are subordinated to the demands of scientific management. While the technical intelligentsia is resistant to traditional forms of bureaucratic authority and open to rational debate and new ideas, its members are not well equipped to take account of the substantive concerns of public policy and service provision. The distinctiveness of public management is submerged by inappropriate private sector models, and issues tend to be reduced to economic ones. The paradox that this culture has risen to prominence under Labor governments is explored and the developments are placed in the context of contemporary demands placed on the Australian state by private capital.     

DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK FOR MANAGEMENT EDUCATION IN THE VICTORIAN PUBLIC SERVICE

Abstract: The Public Service Board of Victoria initiated a project in March 1989 to plan a framework for the development of competent managers. The methodology involved an examination of the current practices of 23 organisations, together with a worldwide literature search. The major findings were that the managerial task is similar across sectors, but the manager level and the environment are qualifying variables; that training, management education and development in private sector organisations and statutory bodies has total commitment from the chief executive, is closely linked to the business plan, forms part of an integrated human resource management system, and is continually reinforced by the organisation's culture and values; and that there is no strategic and focused approach to developing managers across the Victorian Public Service. The 21 recommendations covered the areas of investment and commitment, the development of a systematic approach by providing quality management programs based on core managerial competencies and the integration of training, education and development with performance management processes.
The implementation plan calls for pump-priming funds for resourcing and delivering high quality programs, a change in the culture, the adoption of a set of principles, the establishment of a management education unit, acceptance of a common language of competence for managers, and an integration of education and development needs with corporate plans through the performance improvement system. Commitment to implementation should result in a systematic approach to the formation of competent managers with the benefits flowing to the community through improved services, the government gaining by increased performance of the agencies, and public servants being able to reach their full potential.     

TRANSLATING DEVELOPMENT AID INTO CITY MANAGEMENT: THE BARRIO ACAHUALINCA INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME IN MANAGUA,NICARAGUA

This article seeks to understand how development aid is translated into city management practice in the global South and the implications of this for the power dynamics between municipal governments and international aid agencies. The study examines La Chureca, the rubbish dump and slum of Managua, Nicaragua, and its regeneration programme, the Barrio Acahualinca Integrated Development Programme. In the article, we explore the formulation and initial implementation of the Programme in terms of the construction of an action net in which, by a chain of translations, the Programme was transformed from an aid programme managed by international aid organisations into the management practice of the city of Managua. Despite the silent infiltration of important issues brought to the municipal political agenda by the development aid programme, small acts of defiance and resistance were also enacted by local actors who twisted the Programme to fit local needs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contextual Factors and the Extreme Right Vote in Western Europe, 1980–2002

Research on the voters of the extreme right in Western Europe has become a minor industry, but relatively little attention has been paid to the twin question of why support for these parties is often unstable, and why the extreme right is so weak in many countries. Moreover, the findings from different studies often contradict each other. This article aims at providing a more comprehensive and satisfactory answer to this research problem by employing a broader database and a more adequate modeling strategy. The main finding is that while immigration and unemployment rates are important, their interaction with other political factors is much more complex than suggested by previous research. Moreover, persistent country effects prevail even if a whole host of individual and contextual variables is controlled for.     

The Politics of Federal Technology Policy: 1980–1988

This paper examines the politics of federal initiatives in technology during the period 1980–1988 that promote economic competitiveness. It finds that the ideological consistency of these new initiatives with the prevailing political climate, and the presence of business constituencies for technology are key to the adoption of new technology initiatives. In the absence of a strong business interest, agency politics and efforts dealing with the budget deficit dominate. Progress by new technology policy initiativesfbunders m is incremental at best. This paper also discusses the trend toward "industry-led" technology policy.     

ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY MAKING: ADJUDICATION BY THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS IN ASYLUM-RELATED APPEALS 1980–1987

This analysis examines the extent to which the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), from 1980 to 1987, complied with a new policy of Congress, set forth in the Refugee Act of 1980, which called for an elimination of bias in favor of aliens from hostile countries. Statistical analysis reveals that the BIA did not enforce the Refugee Act of 1980. I argue that Congress never intended to eliminate this bias since doing so would bring it into conflict with actors within the executive branch (including the President and the State Department) that have traditionally dominated policy-making relating to refugees and asylees. Instead, in the Refugee Act of 1980, Congress allowed these actors to retain control through a broad definition of "refugee" and by failing to clearly specify standards for political asylum and withholding of deportation. Simultaneously, Congress temporarily placated private and public "refugee rights" interest groups with statutory provisions that (presumably) eliminated the hostile country bias in U.S. refugee and asylum admis- sions, and granted increased federal aid to private organizations and units of state and local governments.