Overview of administrative reform and implementation in italy: organization,personnel,procedures and delivery of public services

In the early nineties Italy as well as many industrialized countries embarked on a wide governmental reform. Important measures were undertaken by Amato Cabinet in 1991-1992 and Ciampi Cabinet 1993-1994. Later, the Prodi Cabinet has drawn up a comprehensive government reform and modernization plan. This plan deals more courageously and with greater determination with the difficult issue of rethinking the whole Italian administrative system: its institutional architecture, its mission, its rules, its organizational and management models, the patterns of behavior of its managers and employees and its way of dealing with individual citizens and businesses.     

Regime transformation from below: Decentralization,local governance,and democratic reform in Nigeria

How realistic are democratic-governance strategies that emphasize local governance as a key component? Using Nigeria’s experience in local government and primary health care in the 1980s and 1990s as a case example, the article finds there were substantial shortfalls in local participation and program performance. These were caused by problems in the local political environment and local institutional design, in the national policy environment (particularly in the funding system), and by the stresses of structural adjustment, resource shortfalls, the natural physical environment, and weak leadership. These combined to create poor and inappropriate reward structures and lack of accountability. However, even though the Nigerian case was not successful, most of the specific problems that hurt it are remediable through policy changes at the national level. Several of these were under consideration at the time of the coups of 1992 and 1993.     

Left and right among local elites: Comparative figures from Switzerland,Spain, Germany and the Netherlands

This paper examines whether or not the classical ideological cleavage — the left—right dimension — is still valid and determines the choices made in politics. It looks at the extent to which the left‐right concept features in the views of local elites in four European countries. A strong relation is found between the left‐right self‐placement of local elites and their party membership, their opinion about income distribution, the role of government and economic growth. The left‐right dimension is still relevant in the belief system of local elites, but does not determine day‐to‐day decisions. Six factors are discussed which might explain these findings: the validity of this research; the specific characteristics of local‐level policy making; differences between politicians and public administrators; the fragmentation of local politics; the theory on latent and manifest ideologies by Bluhm; and the consensus theory of Wildavsky. It is concluded that more research is needed to test the last two theories, because they seem to be the most promising.     

Structural reform,institutions and earnings: Evidence from the formal and informal sectors in urban Peru

Reforms undertaken in Peru in the early 1990s might have resulted in a slight reduction of the informal sector. Costs associated with becoming and staying informal, and benefits of becoming formal might have increased. This, when a legalistic definition of informality is used. Earnings differentials between formal and informal self‐employed workers are negligible although they persist between formal and informal salaried workers. Skilled workers are more likely to be found in the formal sector and informal wage earners tend to be younger and less skilled. The earnings generating process for both the formal and the informal self‐employed workers is similar.     

哥斯达黎加首任驻华大使布尔戈斯谈双边关系及中国改革开放

2007年6月1日，中国与哥斯达黎加正式建立了大使，级外交关系，哥斯达黎加也成为了中国在中美洲唯一的建交国。2007年10月22日，哥斯达黎加总统阿里亚斯来华访问，中哥关系进一步得到发展。在新春佳节之际，哥斯达黎加首任驻华大使安东尼奥·布尔戈斯接受了本刊的专访，就双边关系、全球化问题以及中国的改革开放政策等回答了记者的提问。     

Health care reform content and process:propositions from the states

Health care reform and cost containment have become central campaign and policy issues in the United States. Although focus now centers on federal health care reform policy, state governments have been actively introducing health care reform legislation. Some of the health care reform initiatives on the state level have influenced deliberations on the federal level and President Clinton's health care reform initiatives will spur further state experimentation regardless of legislative success in Congress, In 1992 nearly all 50 states had either legislation introduced, or special task forces assigned that addressed health care reform issues. This exploratory research compares the content and process of health reform in four states that attempted major reform in 1992—Florida, Washington, Michigan, and Wisconsin—and draws propositions for state reform based on comparisons of content and process. The four states chosen represent geographic diversity and a balance between legislation seeking partial change and legislation calling for universal health care reform. The principal reform bills in each state are compared and assessed on the degree to which they address eight reform elements; high tech medicine, administration, tort reform, long-term care, regulation, insurance mandates, small business insurance, and insurance portability. These initiatives are also compared on a series of reform process variables that relate to the political process for adopting reform: degree of health sector support, type of political strategy used, reform champion, degree of cooperation among policy stakeholders, and timing of initiative. Based on these four cases the phased/partial approach seems to have a greater chance for legislative success than immediate universal reform. Florida's partial, consensus-building approach resulted in the only signed bill of the four states. Washington's bill, which also took a partial approach, passed the state senate before ultimate defeat in 1992 and eventual passage in 1993. Neither of the more ambitious universal health care reform packages introduced in Wisconsin or Michigan got out of committee. Although some of the plans were thorough, none adequately addressed the tradeoff between increasing access to care and containing costs. In addition, this study will demonstrate that universal health care legislation, does not necessarily equate to comprehensive health care reform. The propositions derived from this research have implications for future state health care reform efforts, as well as for federal health care reform policy in terms of the substantive content of reform proposals and the political process by which they are advanced.     

Precautionary and Proactionary as the New Right and the New Left of the Twenty-First Century Ideological Spectrum

Despite its specific origin in the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly after the revolution of 1789, the right–left divide of the ideological spectrum has proved remarkably resilient in anchoring public intellectual life for over two centuries. In this article, I argue that we are witnessing a 90° rotation of this ideological axis, resulting in a new set of poles, each of which combines elements of the old right–left divide. The ‘precautionary’ pole brings together the conservationist side of the right and the communitarian side of the left, whereas the ‘proactionary’ pole unites the libertarian side of the right and the technocratic side of the left. I prepare the ground for discussing these new alternatives with a consideration of the political theology of the old right–left divide, which ultimately turns on alternative visions of how the past determines the future. This ‘left’ basically holds that what is possible significantly exceeds what is probable, with liberals adopting an ‘antirealist’ and socialists a ‘realist’ stance towards the prospect of an optimal social order. Both the precautionary and proactionary poles of the new ideological spectrum are fixated on our attitude towards a future in which the ontological constitution of the polity (i.e. its ‘humanity’) is among the issue under contestation. In this emerging ideological conflict, more of which is transpiring in video than in print, the precautionaries are marked as more ‘risk-averse’ and the proactionaries more ‘risk-seeking’ than had been presumed to be the normal attitude in the modern welfare state.     

Privatization, Chinese-style: economic reform and the state-owned enterprises

This article reviews 'corporatization' and 'marketization', shorthands for privatization, in the Chinese economy. In particular it concentrates upon the most recent round of state-owned enterprise reforms, the Modern Enterprise System and Group Company System, aimed at transforming China's largest state-owned enterprises into internationally competitive corporations. This represents a partial privatization, given that the state will retain majority ownership, while acquiring domestic and foreign capital via sharelistings and foreign and domestic joint ventures.
Drawing upon interview material from a five-year study of state-owned enterprises, the authors will indicate that such part privatization has been pragmatic and relatively slow. It has been constrained and circumscribed by broader economic and social reform programmes and accompanied by political decentralization and reforms. Ultimately, the reform and pace of reform is shaped by the desire to avoid political and social unrest which could, potentially, threaten the harmony of the Chinese central state apparatus.     

Seizing the moment: outcomes assessment,curriculum reform,and mpa education

This article reviews a recent exercise in developing an outcomes-based capstone course for the MPA program at the University of Baltimore. Chronicled is the way a reversible logic approach to designing that course led ineluctably into a full-scale, outcomes-based, strategic planning exercise for the program as a whole. In the process, the department was able to craft a performance-based curriculum that attacked an “entitlement ethic” among students, that made the faculty more accountable for its actions in the classroom, that streamlined course offerings and content in mission-related ways, and that introduced a “continuous process improvement” ethic driven by constant feedback from the capstone course.