Healthy Country, Healthy People: Policy Implications of Links between Indigenous Human Health and Environmental Condition in Tropical Australia

Investment in programs that help Indigenous people undertake work maintaining the environmental health of their country has benefits for the environment as well as the physical, mental and cultural health of the Indigenous people involved. For health these findings have direct implications for some national health policies, service provision to homelands, health promotion and Indigenous health research. There are also direct implications for environmental investment in northern Australia and the design and regulation of markets in resource entitlements. Indirectly the findings should be important for economic, employment and education policies as well as those promoting social harmony. Given the range of benefits there is a strong argument for cross-agency investment in working on country by Indigenous people.     

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.     

Bureaucrats and Politicians in Britain

The distinctive relationship between bureaucrats and politicians in Britain has been much noted around the world and often used a model by reformers. However, both Conservative and Labour governments have displayed dissatisfaction with the bureaucracy and have made important changes in the "Whitehall model." Some of these changes have reduced the degree to which British politicians have been unusually dependent on a career bureaucracy that is insulated from partisan politics.     

Systems Ideologies and Street-Level Bureaucrats: Policy Change and Perceptions of Quality in a Behavioral Health Care System

This article examines the stability of street-level bureaucrats' negative perceptions regarding a newly implemented managed care system on quality of care and service delivery in a publicly funded behavioral health care system. Overall findings indicate that the generally negative perception of managed care did not differ between staff in the two programs, indicating a weak effect on attitudes of frontline workers. More proximal variables to the caregiver, such as service type and job title, show more influence on attitudes. The conclusion discusses the implications of these findings for practicing administrators and academic researchers.     

Unprincipled Principals: Co-opted Bureaucrats and Corruption in Ghana

In theory, granting politicians tools to oversee bureaucrats can reduce administrative malfeasance. In contrast, I argue that the political control of bureaucrats can increase corruption when politicians need money to fund election campaigns and face limited institutional constraints. In such contexts, politicians can leverage their discretionary powers to incentivize bureaucrats to extract rents from the state on politicians' behalf. Using data from an original survey of bureaucrats (N = 864) across 80 randomly sampled local governments in Ghana, I show that bureaucrats are more likely to facilitate politicians' corrupt behavior when politicians are perceived to be empowered with higher levels of discretionary control. Using qualitative data and a list experiment to demonstrate the mechanism, I show that politicians enact corruption by threatening to transfer noncompliant officers. My findings provide new evidence on the sources of public administrative deficiencies in developing countries and qualify the presumption that greater political oversight improves governance.     

Contracting for Indigenous Health Care: Towards Mutual Accountability

In Australia and other industrialised countries, governments contract with the non‐government sector for the provision of primary health care to indigenous peoples. Australian governments have developed policies and funding programs to support this health sector, but the current arrangements are unduly complex and fragmented. The results of our study show that the complex contractual environment for Aboriginal Community‐Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) and their funders is an unintended but inevitable result of a quasi‐classical approach to contracts applied by multiple funders. The analysis in this article highlights potential policy and program changes that could improve the effectiveness of funding and accountability arrangements, based on the use of an alliance contracting model, better performance indicators and greater clarity in the relative roles of national and jurisdictional governments.     

Reinventing the Governance of Public Finances in Remote Indigenous Australia

The economies of remote Indigenous settlements are dominated by public finances. The current system of governing public finance is highly saturated, fragmented and centralised, and this has a corrosive effect on local governance capability. The political accountability of leaders to their constituents is weakened in favour of an administrative accountability ‘upwards’ to higher authorities. New Public Management reforms have promoted administrative deconcentration, over political devolution, and this has been accompanied by an influx of public servants, Non‐Government Organisations (NGOs) and private contractors, and a decline in Indigenous organisations and local government. The end result in many settlements is a marked disengagement of Indigenous people in their own governance. There is evidence of considerable political capabilities existing within local government electorates. Decentralised financing arrangements can be used to catalyse these capabilities and then address deficits in administrative and technical performance.     

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.     

Political Management in Australia: The Case of the Northern Territory

This article reviews the evolution of administrative arrangements in the Northern Territory since the 1970s, covering both the devolutionary phase and, with somewhat more emphasis, the self-government period since 1978. The article centres on the theme of political management which, as in the recent work by Halligan and Power (1992), has become a major focus in the study of Australian administrative reform. Political management involves a 'modernising reform agenda. internal in orientation and concerned mainly with making the organizational and human resources of the executive branch more responsive to the priorities of superordinates' (Halligan and Power 1992: 249). Particular attention here is given to the evolving pattern of relationships between the political and bureaucratic arms of the Northern Territory executive.     

Moralists, Pragmatists, and Rogues: Bureaucrats in Modern Mysteries

Many contemporary mysteries feature bureaucrats struggling with difficult ethical dilemmas. Should they lie? Disobey an order? Use physical force? Break the law in order to catch a criminal? In addition to their entertainment value, mysteries offer untapped opportunities to reflect on the moral conflicts faced by civil servants. In this article, the author analyzes the work of 12 modern mystery writers whose protagonists include police detectives, a medical examiner, a prosecutor, a park ranger, and a fire chief. Several types of bureaucrats are identified including moralists, pragmatists, and rogues. The author then links these types to broader ethical philosophies, such as actutilitarianism, rule‐utilitarianism, ethical egoism, and Kant's categorical imperative. He concludes that mysteries can be an effective teaching tool for courses in ethics and public administration.     

Reining in the Bureaucrats: Democratic Transition and Administrative Procedural Reform in Korea

How do civilian presidents control their bureaucracies after taking over from an authoritarian regime? To answer this question, I develop a “reining in” theory of delegation. I argue that presidents who faces intrabranch conflict over policy issues and cannot appoint—and dismiss—freely will solve their delegation problems through administrative procedure acts (APAs) and related laws. While some scholars argue that APAs are tools for preserving the status quo, I find that APAs help presidents change policy. Building on the delegation literature from economics, my theory represents a more general argument than prior theories for why presidents support APAs. I test the theory through a case study of South Korea's first civilian government (post‐1961), under President Kim Young Sam. Kim initiated an APA to rein in a professionalized civil service that opposed his policy preferences. Strict procedural requirements designed to keep tabs on bureaucratic activities enhanced Kim's control over his bureaucracy.     

Bureaucrats and Markets in China: The Rise and Fall of Entrepreneurial Local Government

Local government entrepreneurship in China in the reform era is argued to have been, on balance, instrumental to growth and market-oriented reform.¹ Economic factors are emphasized in explaining both its rise and anticipated decline. Undeveloped markets and established local state trading networks favored agencies of the local state in exploiting business opportunities arising from deregulation. However, market development and increasing autonomy of firms are now reducing the advantage of local government business agencies, and they face a diminished and changed role.     

Health Ombudsmen in Polycentric Regulatory Fields: England,New Zealand,and Australia

Health ombudsmen (health complaints commissioners), an unusual entity internationally, exist only in England, New Zealand, and the Australian states and territories. Established to respond to complaints from patients, the intention is to make health services and professionals more accountable to the public. Most cases are handled around the softer base of a regulatory pyramid, such as advice to complainants and requests to providers for an explanation and/or apology. Few cases escalate to investigations and prosecutions. Although the legal powers of some health ombudsmen to redress individual grievances have been strengthened, most lack the independent power to initiate an inquiry into systemic problems. To produce quality improvements, health ombudsmen need powers to require compliance from providers and to initiate inquiries. With the advent of new health sector regulators, health ombudsmen must negotiate their role and function within expanding networks of governance.