Quangos—Why Bother Counting Them When Whitehall Can't?

‘Mindless’ empiricism rules in British central government, bolstered by the use of prerogative powers and the absence of any ‘court of appeal’ to insist on definitions and uniformities. This gives arguments about quangos—arm's‐length bodies—a surreal quality. The Cameron coalition has created many new quangos, while claiming a cull. Unless and until Whitehall acquires, or is forced to acquire, better habits of mind, it may be a waste of time for academics and reformers to prepare taxonomies and call for more administrative rationality.     

Mais Médicos: Cuba's Medical Internationalism Programme in Brazil

In 2014, at the request of the Brazilian government and under the sponsorship of PAHO, the Cuban government sent 11,400 doctors to work in underserved areas. This article examines the origins and development of this programme, Mais Médicos. The significance of this programme is explored, as well as what it illustrates about south‐south cooperation as a whole.     

LIMITS ON INNOVATIVENESS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: EXAMINING CAPACITY,COMPLEXITY, AND DYNAMISM IN ORGANIZATIONAL TASK ENVIRONMENTS

Theory and evidence on the diffusion and antecedents of innovation in public organizations demonstrate that organizations respond to their environment and react by being more or less innovative. However, questions about the limits of responses to organizational task environments remain unexplored: in short, what is the appropriate level of environmental capacity and when does the environment become too complex or dynamic for innovation to occur? This study examines non‐linear capacity, complexity, and dynamic environments in an archival panel of 405 English local governments using primary and secondary data from a number of sources. Findings indicate that non‐linearities effect perceived innovativeness in relation to political and social capacity, and political dynamism in an inverted U shape, and in a U shape for community capacity. The implications of these findings for the study of public service innovation are considered.     

Scotland's Sectarianism Problem: Irish Answers?

A series of developments during the 2010–11 football season has led to an intense public debate over the question of the nature and extent of religious sectarianism in Scotland. The Scottish National Party (SNP) government has responded with a new piece of legislation which has been widely criticised and has prompted some commentators to speculate about a political ‘own goal’. This article provides a guide to the debate around sectarianism and its historical and political dimensions. It also suggests that the Irish roots of the problem in Scotland should be properly acknowledged, and that a possible way forward could involve cooperation between Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland within the structures and procedures of the British–Irish Council (BIC).     

THE SOCIAL FUND AS AN EXERCISE IN RESOURCE ALLOCATION

The social fund is the latest attempt to cope with the exceptional needs sometimes experienced by people in receipt of social assistance. It is also the first occasion when resource allocation decisions have been located centre-stage in a policy area that, hitherto, has been primarily demand-led. The social fund, which is eventually to be cash-limited, is allocated between over 400 Department of Social Security ( dss ; formerly Department of Health and Social Security, dhss ) local offices. The article describes how the 1988/9 budget was fixed and allocated between local offices, considers some of the problems that policymakers faced when devising the allocation criteria and examines the territorial redistribution inherent in the chosen strategy and which may or may not have been intended.