The Call to Public Service: Entrance, Learning, and Reflection

Books reviewed in this article: Richard P. Nathan, So You Want to Be in Government? Handbook for Appointed Officials in America's Governments Kenneth H. Ashworth, Caught between the Dog and the Fireplug, or, How to Survive Public Service O.C. McSwite, Invitation to Public Administration     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Howard A Frank, Budgetary Forecasting in Local Government: New Tools and Techniques John E. Anderson, (ed.) Fiscal Equalization for State and Local Government Finance National Commission on the State and Local Public Service, Frustrated Federalism: RX for State and Local Health Care Reform     

The Role,Scope and Scale of Local Government in New Zealand: Its Prospective Future

This article contributes to the current debate as to the role, scope and scale of local government in New Zealand. In 2008, the Nationals Local Government Minister announced his intention to undertake a fundamental review of local government in NZ. This review finally took shape in mid 2011 with the publication of the consultation document ‘Smarter Government, Stronger Communities: towards better local governance and public services’ ( Hide 2011 ). This article adds to the debate by identifying four key themes within the NZ local government system, namely: the legislative framework; managerial capabilities; calibre of elected members and finally democratic deficit and community disengagement. Whilst the first two themes are undoubted strengths, the latter two are equally weaknesses in the local governance system of NZ. Hence the article makes a number of recommendations, seeking to exploit the strengths and to correct the weaknesses in order to create a robust and credible local governance system for NZ.     

Book Reviews

Book review in this article: Thickening Government, Federal Hierarchy and the Diffusion of Accountability. By Paul C. Light. Taxation and Democracy: Swedish, Brifish, and American Approaches to Financing the Modern State. By Sven Steinmo. Ideology and Political Choice: The Search for Freedom, Justice, and Virtue. By Vernon Van Dyke. Next Steps: Improving Management in Government? By Barry J. O'Toole and Grant Jordan, eds.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: James A. Maxwell . Commonwealth-State Financial Relations in Australia. A. C. Palfreeman . The Administration of the White Australia Policy. Melbourne University Zelman Cowen . Isaac Isaacs. M. Beever and F. B. Smith (Compilers). Historical Studies: Selected Articles (Second Series) Mohammad Ayub Khan . Friends Not Masters. E. N. Gladden . Civil Services of the United Kingdom, 1853–1970. Frank Cass & Co. Ltd, London, 1967 Her Majesty's Government. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967 Local Government in Britain. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967 The Courts of Justice. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Barry Hughes , Exit Full Employment: Economic Policy in the Stone Age. Peter Sheehan , Crisis in Abundance. Royal Institute of Public Administration, Policy and Practice: The Experience of Government. Clifford Pearce , The Machinery of Change in Local Government 1888–1974. P. B. Beaumont , Government as Employer—Setting an Example?. A.F. Davies , skills, Outlooks and Passions: A Psychoanalytic Contribution to the Study of Politics. Andrew Parkin and Allan Patience (eds). John Power , Helen Nelson (eds), The Regional Administrator in the Riverina, Roger Scott , Northern Ireland, The Politics of Violence. John Dixon , Australia's Policy Towards the Aged.     

Separated Powers in the United States: The Ideology of Agencies,Presidents, and Congress

Government agencies service interest groups, advocate policies, provide advice to elected officials, and create and implement public policy. Scholars have advanced theories to explain the role of agencies in American politics, but efforts to test these theories are hampered by the inability to systematically measure agency preferences. We present a method for measuring agency ideology that yields ideal point estimates of individual bureaucrats and agencies that are directly comparable with those of other political actors. These estimates produce insights into the nature of the bureaucratic state and provide traction on a host of questions about American politics. We discuss what these estimates reveal about the political environment of bureaucracy and their potential for testing theories of political institutions. We demonstrate their utility by testing key propositions from Gailmard and Patty's (2007) influential model of political control and endogenous expertise development.     

Protecting the environment

His most recent books include the third edition of Business, Government, and the Public, The Future of Business Regulation,and Public Policy Toward Corporate Takeovers.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Geoffrey Sawer . Australian Federalism in the Courts. Stanley Brogden . Australia's Two-Airline Policy. Colin A. Hughes (ed.). Readings in Australian Government.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Mark Baldassare, When Government Fails: The Orange Country Bankruptcy Bruce A. Walllin, From Revenue Sharing to Deficit Sharing: General Revenue Sharing and Cities     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article: Arthur Tange: Last of the Mandarins Peter Edwards Australian Social Attitudes. The First Report Shaun Wilson, Gabrielle Meagher, David Denemark and Mark Western (eds) Terms of Trust: Arguments over Ethics in Australian Government John Uhr Making Public Policy: Institutions, Actors, Strategies Mark Considine The Life and Death of Harold Holt Tom Frame Head of State: the Governor‐General, the Monarchy, the Republic and the Dismissal David Smith Westminster Legacies: Democracy and Responsible Government in Asia and the Pacific Haig Patapan, John Wanna and Patrick Weller (eds) The Governance of Public and Non‐Profit Organisations: What do boards do? Chris Cornforth (ed) Australia Unsettled: The Legacy of ‘Neo‐liberalism’ Dennis Woodward Challenges to State Policy Capacity: Global Trends and Comparative Perspectives Martin Painter and Jon Pierre (eds)     

Organizing research in an information society

His publications include Guidelines to the Decentralization of Government Furnctions; Utilization of RANN Research Results: A Survey of the Research Applied to National Needs Program of the National Science Foundation;and A Strategy for Improving Education in Science and Mathematics.     

Depoliticization,Citizenship, and the Politics of Community in Hong Kong

This article critically examines the government discourses on citizenship and community in Hong Kong from the 1960s to the present. By making special reference to the government's discourses on three public events—the 1966 Hong Kong Government 1966 Report of the Working Party on Local Administration Hong Kong Government Printer  [Google Scholar] Star Ferry riots, the 1981 riots, and scuffles such as those that took place at the Cultural Center, Tsimshatsui, on Christmas and New Year's Eve of 2002—it reconstructs the meaning of good citizenship as promoted by the Hong Kong colonial and Special Administrative Region (SAR) governments, respectively. These three public events are selected as cases highly indicative of what the government expects an ideal citizen to be because all of them aroused substantial public attention which subsequently invoked considerable government discourses and action. Citizenship is built upon a shared sense of community. Considered in this context, this article also traces the understanding of community of the governments, as it is intertwined with the notion of citizenship, through the development of government policies on youth and citizen education in the city from the 1960s onward. It is obvious that citizenship is constituted from both above (by the government) and below (by the civil society). By reconstructing the government discourses in this regard, this paper will shed light on part of the process of citizenship making in Hong Kong.     

The evolving corporate board

This study draws heavily on the author’s report “Strengthening the Corporate Board” and on his textbook Business and Government in the Global Marketplace.Samuel Hughes provided helpful research assistance.     

BOOK NOTES

Book reviewed in this article: Geoffrey Sawer . Australian Government Today David Coombes . Politics and Bureaucracy in the European Community. Giovanni Napione . L'Ombudsman: Il controllore della pubblica amministrazione. Akio Watanabe . The Okinawa Problem: A Chapter in Japan—U.S. Relations. V. Subramaniam . The Managerial Class of India.     

The Nordic governments' responses to the Covid-19 pandemic: A comparative study of variation in governance arrangements and regulatory instruments

Government responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Nordic states—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—exhibit similarities and differences. This article investigates the extent to which crisis policymaking diverges from normal policymaking within the Nordic countries and whether variations between the countries are associated with the role of expertise and the level of politicization. Government responses are analyzed in terms of governance arrangements and regulatory instruments. Findings demonstrate some deviation from normal policymaking within and considerable variation between the Nordic countries, as Denmark, Finland, and to some extent Norway exhibit similar patterns with hierarchical command and control governance arrangements, while Iceland, in some instances, resembles the case of Sweden, which has made use of network-based governance. The article shows that the higher the influence of experts, the more likely it is that the governance arrangement will be network-based.     

Book Review

Book reviewed in this article: Corrupt Exchanges: Actors, Resources, and Mechanisms of Political Corruption by Donatella della Porta and Alberto Vannucci. Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences, and Reform by Susan Rose‐Ackerman.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: L. R. Jones and Gmenn C. Bixler, Mission Financing to Realign National Defence Donald Axclrod, Shadow Government: The Hidden World of Public Authorities - And How They Control Over $1 Trillion of Your Money Fred Thompson and L.R. Jones, Reinventing the Pentagon: How the New Public Management Can Bring Institutional Renewal Anthony Downs, New Visions for Metropolitan America     

BOOK NOTES

Book reviewed in this article: R. A. Chapman . Decision Making. H. Victor Wiseman . Local Government at Work. Brian C. Smith , Field Administration. R. K. Alderman and J. A. Cross . The Tactics of Resignation. K. B. Smellie . A History of Local Government. Samuel J. Eldersvelt et al. The Citizen and the Administrator in a Developing Democracy.     

BOOK NOTES

O. W. POWELL, Medical Research and Public Policy KENNETH WILTSHIRE and CHARLES STOKES, Government Regulation and the Commercial Electronic Media I. K. F. BIRCH, The School and the Law, and E. R. TREYVAUD and JOHN MCLAREN, Equal but Cheaper G. D. McCOLL, The Economics of Electricity Supply in Australia HENRY MAYER, with MARGARET BETTISON and JUDY KEENE, ARGAP: A Research Guide to Australian Politics and Cognate Subjects C. A. BURMESTER, comp., Guide to the Collections ROSEMARY WALTERS, In the Pub: A Guide to the Learning Resources in the Public Service JEREMY J. JOHNSON, comp., Corporate Planning: A Bibliography and Selective Guide to the Sources of Literature Australian Politics: A New Ball Game? J. M. POWER, Cases in Local Government Management E. GRANDJEAN and A. GILGEN, Environmental Factors in Urban Planning AUSTRALIAN FOUNDATION ON ALCOHOLISM AND DRUG DEPENDENCE, National Alcohol and Drug Dependence Multi-disciplinary Institute, ′75 BRIAN SMITH, Policy Making in British Government SEAN DOONEY, The Irish Civil Service KENNETH KERNAGHAN, Executive Manpower in the Public Service: Make or Buy