National Competition Policy: Progress and Prospects

National Competition perspectives Policy — contending perspective.
The Hilmer Report is to competition what fertiliser is to grass (Ian Salmon, BCA 1995).
These reforms are good for the Australian economy and community. They hold the promise of helping to deliver more growth, more jobs and lower inflation but with higher real wages and a better standard of living (Hon. George Gear MP 1995).
The legislation has the potential to be very far reaching and may have implications far broader than originally intended (General Evidence — Australian Senate Economics Legislation Committee 1995).
The process of putting detailed legal and administrative flesh on the bare bone of the principles was not going to be easy. The resolution of issues. at times came down to the balance of power rather than good sense (Christine Charles, South Australian Dept of Premier and Cabinet 1995).
The practical failure to deliver on the claims about competition and efficiency are becoming increasingly evident (Professor Frank Stilwell 1995).
The Commission has a number of concerns on the impact on rural and remote communities and how the competing demands of increased competition and maintaining levels of community service obligations will be balanced in a newly competitive environment (ATSIC 1995).     

The presidential party and the fifth republic

Until 1986 the prevailing interpretation of the French Fifth Republic was one of encroaching presidential domination; notwithstanding some welcome revisionism occasioned by ‘cohabitation’, presidentialism continues to permeate analysis of contemporary French politics. This article attempts a comparative assessment of the presidential party as it has functioned under the first four presidents of the French Fifth Republic: de Gaulle, Pompidou, Giscard d'Estaing and Mitterrand. It is contended that each presidential party has shared certain attributes, resulting from systemic influences in France's semi‐presidential system; while retaining distinct characteristics derived from its identity as a particular type of party, and from the experience of a varying political context. The opportunities and constraints faced by successful presidential parties outweigh in importance their dissimilarites, inherited from their experience of different models of party organisation and ideology. No presidential party that has fallen from grace has managed to survive unscathed, nor to recover its position of former influence.     

Symposium: Exporting Government Services

To explore the prospects for exporting government services, guest symposium editor RFI Smith invites three agencies to comment on their experience. This overview stresses the need to specify carefully costs and benefits in taking operations offshore — both in strict financial terms and in dealing with perception and accountability issues.
The prospects for exporting public sector skills and services are at the same time tantalising and frustrating. After initial enthusiasm in the 1970s and 1980s, the management of export programs has turned out to be complex, demanding and not without controversy. Such programs have challenged their proponents to be at once sophisticated in business management, rigorous and transparent in public accountability, and sensitive to the capabilities and ambitions of private sector providers of similar services. Further, after approximately 10 to 20 years of experience in different Australian jurisdictions, aims, methods and estimates of results remain diverse.     

Budgeting Rights: The Case of Jail Litigation

Judicial decisions are one element in the erosion of local government budgetary discretion. For example, litigation concerning constitutional rights forces local government officials to allocate resources toward the rights-based population. While rights-based allocation decisions may narrow the budgetary discretion of public officials, some managers may, paradoxically, be "better-off"—defined as the ability to protect and defend their budgets — when discretion is reduced. This thesis is tested through a case study of jail overcrowding litigation in a county government.     

Belgian federalism: Towards complexity and asymmetry

From the beginning of the twentieth century, tendencies towards decentralisation began to take shape in the Belgian unitary state. They resulted in a federal concept in 1988. The constitutional reformers of 1988 worked out a strikingly original concept. Not only do the constituent parts differ thoroughly at the economic, social, ideological and linguistic‐cultural levels, but there is also an incredible degree of complexity and asymmetry among the newly‐created institutions themselves, as witness the extreme case of the political structures in the Brussels region. This sui generis can be understood only by looking at it against a background of the complex political evolution of the last few decades and in particular the equally complex process by which the 1988 government was formed.     

SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION IN AUSTRALIA: THE NEED FOR A PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION

There appear to be two current, opposing misconceptions concerning the nature of social administration. On the one hand there is the belief that it constitutes "no special or definite study but a part of that general mass of things which every earnest young man or woman should know" and, on the other hand, it is "often assumed without question to be concerned with administrative practice"¹.
The domain of the subject of "social administration" is the social service industry in all its parts, its relationship with the industrial and commercial world, and its relationship with primary groups such as families, friends, and neighbours².
Narrowly defined, social administration is the study of the development structure and practices of the social services. Broadly defined, it is an attempt to apply the social sciences — including philosophy — to the analysis and solution of a changing range of social problems³.     

The Role of Civil Servants in National Budgeting: An International Comparison

Beginning in October 1988, a budgeteer-exchange program has existed between Her Majesty's Treasury in the United Kingdom and the Office of Management and Budget in the United States. Cultural and constitutional differences make the jobs of the budgeteers in each country analogous but not equal. Differences that exist include organizational structure, work content, and information presentation to legislative bodies.     

Ownership versus competition: Efficiency in public enterprise

Certainly the introduction of product market competition into potentially competitive or, at least contestable, markets can improve performance. To take just one example, Morrison and Whinston (1986, 1986) estimate that even in the imperfectly contestable U.S. airline industry, the annual U.S. welfare gains from deregulation have been around $6 billion.But this paper argues, and further buttresses empirically, that ownership also matters and matters a lot. This does not necessarily imply that private ownership is always preferable to public ownership. PCs also engage in rent-seeking where possible, but they will try to maximize realizable rents by (relatively) keeping down production costs. Of course, where there are massive economies of scale and scope, high entry barriers, or externalities, public ownership may be preferred. (see Vickers and Yarrow, 1988).     

Iceland: Searching for Democracy along Three Dimensions of Citizen Control

This article scrutinises delegation and accountability in Iceland. In a healthy democracy, the representatives serve the wishes and interests of the main principal, the people. In an ailing democracy, the agents of the people primarily serve themselves.
The main conclusions are as follows. First, the semi-presidential constitutional framework places the voters in a central role. They vote in two systems, electing MPs in the parliamentary system and the president by a national vote. The open primary, adopted by the main political parties, gives the voters the opportunity to participate in the selection of candidates in parliamentary elections. The central role of the voters is, however, often made difficult by the fluctuation and complexity of this dual system of representation. Second, citizen control through party organisations and party membership has all but disappeared. Instead, political parties cater to the fickle electorate and produce government policy aiming at economic stability and economic growth. Third, external constraints – the political presidency, judicial activism and Iceland's membership of the European Economic Area – all weigh in and sometimes override decisions reached by the parliamentary system of government.
The final conclusion is that the Icelandic system of governance has become a rather messy and complicated political arrangement, thereby resembling the situation in other modern democracies.     

When the witch doctors agree: The family support act and social science research

In 1986 the author was recruited by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to draft new federal welfare reform legislation for the 100th Congress. The result was the Family Support Act of 1988. From the beginning it was planned that the bill would reflect the best knowledge available about helping poor families make the transition from dependence on welfare to independence and work. In contrast to the experience of the 1970s, when the “Witch Doctors” of social science seemed unable to agree on appropriate policies, research made a difference for FSA. The education, training, and work requirements in the legislation were substantially influenced by the evaluations of welfare-to-work programs conducted by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, and the conduct of MDRC in the dissemination of these results contributed significantly to the effort's political success. Whether this marks a new phase in the connection between social policy and research is uncertain.     

Effective Corporatisation Legislation: The Fundamental Issue in Port Management

It is now some seven years since the restructure of Australian ports and their transformation into corporatised entities. This strategy was adopted in an endeavour to improve efficiency by distancing government from day to day operations - that element that was perceived to be the cause of sub-optimal performance. While there is widespread agreement that port performance has improved significantly, dissatisfaction persists and the belief that continued political intervention is preventing ports' commercial potential from being realised. This paper investigates these issues but argues that political intervention per se should not be the focus of research as the fundamental cause of sub-optimal performance. Rather political intervention is an effect of a more fundamental problem — an inappropriate legislative framework — and the focus of research should be on the legislation and corporatisation model in which political intervention is mandatory.     

Public Spheres and Urban Space: A Critical Comparative Approach*

China's mounting unemployment in recent years is an unintended but predictable consequence of the economic reform with an open labor market. It has turned into a major political crisis in a "socialist state" where not only security but also sovereign dignity of labor remain central to the constitutional mandate and, however lingering, to popular expectation as well. This article traces the origins of the crisis, explores linkage between participation and recognition, explains mutual relevance of the EuroAmerican "future of work" debate and the Chinese experience, and argues for creative adaptation toward an alternative. It concludes with an observation that participatory activities beyond salaried jobs would require guaranteed social security; and only institutional innovations in public policy that enable democratic control by citizens over resources and management can forge a new social contract for overcoming unemployment.     

Back to the Future? Warnings from History for a Future UK Constitutional Convention

Amid the fallout from the Scottish independence referendum, a UK constitutional convention has been proposed as a mechanism to take stock not only of the referendum, but also of the past fifteen years of devolution. However, despite longstanding conceptions of British constitutional development, a constitutional convention would not herald a brave new world for the UK's constitution. As the article highlights, in the past hundred years there have been two attempts to treat the territorial constitution in the round: the Speaker's Conference on Devolution, 1919–1920 and the Royal Commission on the Constitution, 1969–1973. This article examines both of these forums, arguing that they provide clear warnings for a future UK constitutional convention, in particular the threat of internal division that any such forum risks facing. A danger that this article highlights is heightened by the associated difficulty of reaching agreement across the UK's ‘state of unions’.     

New Labour and Government in Britain: Change or Continuity?

The 1997 British election marks a major change in British government. Eighteen years of Conservative rule had brought about growing inequality and social division and have generated powerful demands for new directions in public policy, especially in the areas of welfare and public administration. On welfare state reform Labour is constrained by election promises to restrain taxation and public expenditure. New Labour ministers influenced by the New Right have in any case largely rejected traditional social democratic redistributive strategies and are seeking instead new ways of reducing welfare dependency.
The virulent spread of quangos at all levels of government and a marked increase in the centralisation of power in Whitehall have given a new impetus to demands for constitutional reform. Labour's response to these demands is a major program of regional devolution, House of Lords reform and open government measures.
This article explains what 'New Labour' means and discusses New Labour policies on welfare and constitutional reform and their implications for the future of public administration in Britain.     

Paradoxes and Pendulum Swings: Performance Management in New Zealand's Public Sector

Under New Zealand's radical state sector reforms, 'empowered' managers are held accountable in an arm's length way by politicians and control agencies through the use of clearly stated objectives and the availability of quality information about progress towards those objectives. However, empirical research indicates that this thermostatic metaphor embodies a number of paradoxes. A great deal of international attention has been paid to these reforms, but New Zealand has not discovered any ultimate resolution of the fundamental paradox of modern bureaucracy — the tendency for control to subvert purpose — and is now seeking a new 'balance' between these two managerial imperatives.     

Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
Fragile Bastion: Judicial Independence in the Nineties and Beyond H CUNNINGHAM (ed.)
Policy and Change: The Howard Mandate SCOTT PRASSER and GRAEME STARR (eds)
Genesis, Termination and Succession in the Life Cycle of Organizations: The Case of the Maritime Resource Management Service M PAUL BROWN (Monographs on Canadian Public Administration — No. 19)
Managerialism: The Great Debate M CONSIDINE and M PAINTER (eds)
The Chance of Politics PAUL HASLUCK (ed.)
Health Policy in Australia H. GARDNER (ed.)     

Bagehot Smiling: Gordon Brown's ‘New Constitution’ and the Revolution that Did Not Happen

The MPs expenses scandal that erupted in May 2009 has certainly rekindled interest in the next stage of constitutional reform and democratic renewal in Britain. This article examines how Gordon Brown's tenure as Prime Minister has differed from Tony Blair's in relation to the ‘new politics’ narrative. It argues that despite his long‐term personal commitment to major constitutional reforms, the role of crises in recalibrating the political opportunity structure and the manner in which electoral incentives can alter elite attitudes to institutional change that Brown's tenure can be characterised by optimism followed by timidity. Gordon Brown may have flown a few kites in relation to a written constitution, electoral reform, English devolution and the future of the House of Lords but he has left things far too late for a ‘constitutional moment’. Brown may have the political inclination but he lacks the capacity to deliver far‐reaching reform; Cameron is likely to have the capacity but not the inclination.     

CUTBACK MANAGEMENT IN CANADA*

Abstract: Although since 1975 the Government of Canada has been successful in containing its expenditure growth — partly as a result of the demands for value for money in government and the political implications of the large deficit — the drive for efficiency and economy has a long history. The Budget reforms of the 1970s (such as MBO, PPB and OPMS) have been joined at the Federal level by a new Policy and Expenditure Management System based on resource "envelopes". This involves the preparation of a five-year fiscal plan setting out projected revenue and total expenditure with a division of expenditure into ten "envelopes" for ten policy sectors. Expenditure priorities are determined by the Priorities and Planning Committee chaired by the Prime Minister, and five Cabinet Committees are responsible for managing the various policy sectors within the funds available. The intention is that "X-budgets", or across-the-board percentage cuts which were the earlier means of cutting back, will be replaced by the more sophisticated "envelope" system. In various ways all Provincial governments — even resource-rich Alberta — have also cutback their expenditures. Ontario has used two blunt instruments in its cutbacks; an arbitrary growth target below the level of inflation and the limitation of public service manpower through the device of "person-years". The lesson from Ontario's experience is the importance of political will in cutback management.     

Major Players: Bureaucracies In American Government

For more than 50 years, Herbert Kaufman has been an astute observer of public bureaucracies. In this essay, Kaufman draws on his extensive experience in explaining the role of public bureaucracies in the American political system. Kaufman was motivated to write the essay because of his concern that public bureaucracies are not given adequate attention in American government textbooks. We hope that PAR readers will use the essay to educate students and others about the important role of public bureaucracies in American government.—LDT