Marketization, Managers and Moral Strain: Chairmen, Directors and Public Service Ethos in the National Health Service

Survival of the public service ethos in Britain has been called into question following introduction of the 'new public management' and marketizing reforms in much of the public sector. This article examines how these developments have occurred in the NHS, using survey data to analyse NHS board members' substantive ethical values. Unexpectedly the results suggest that NHS board members with a predominantly NHS background appear less ethically conservative, more flexible and less risk–averse than those recruited from non–NHS backgrounds; and that as yet the NHS management 'culture' is not very homogenous in respect of 'business ethics'. The NHS reforms also appear to accentuate the tensions between transparent public accountability in NHS management and incentives not to publicize certain types of information. Recent codification of NHS 'business ethics' can be understood as an attempt to buttress the public service ethos against the increased moral strains of a quasi–market.     

Private sector shrinkage and the growth of industrialized economies: Reply

Further tests and thoughts on the OECD data lead me to conclude that, if anything, my 1986 paper underestimated the magnitude of the inverse relation between economic growth and government size. If one takes the nominal-based measure of government scale, as advised by Saunders, the significance levels, coefficient magnitudes and goodness of fits improve over what I found with my initial investigation. I would suggest that Saunders reconsider his reluctance to believe that the size of the public sector is unrelated to economic growth in OECD countries over this time period.One additional thought appears relevant to the current policy debate concerning budget deficits and economic performance within the major industrialized economies. The empirical work displayed here and in my 1986 paper suggests serious problems associated with the various proposals urging governments to raise taxes and/or ease fiscal policy. Elsewhere, I have suggested that available empirical evidence implies that plans to increase taxes as a way out of budget deficits are plans that carry the potential for raising government spending and possibly future deficits as well. Coupled with the evidence presented here, we should also recognize the potential of tax increases to raise the level of government participation in a country and, accordingly, exert inverse influences on its future economic performance as well. As suggested in my 1986 paper, the empirical evidence may suggest the following irony: While political participants may crave larger and larger non-market resource allocations, their future ability to satisfy that craving may very well be severely constrained by the satisfaction of that same appetite.     

Reviews

Recently, various authors have examined the relationship between growth in government size and total economic growth. In each case, the authors permitted only a monotonic relationship. This paper examines the issue of a non-linear relationship between growth in government and overall growth in the economy.Government contributes to total economic output in various ways. The provision of Pigovian public goods enhances the productivity of the private sector inputs increasing total output. However, the public decision-making process can result in an inefficient quantity of public goods. The likelihood of this outcome increases with the size of government. Further negative effects are created by the revenue raising and spending mechanisms of government, and the increasing diversion of resources into unproductive rent-seeking activities. The magnitude of these effects is likely to increase with the relative size of government.     

Bicommunalism in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is a bicommunal society in which Protestantsare numerically dominant; Roman Catholics constitute virtuallyall of the remaining population. On the island as a whole, Protestantsare heavily outnumbered; the Republic of Ireland (the "South")has a population that is about 96 percent Catholic. Social segregationof the two northern communities is relatively distinct, andthere is little crosscutting between groups that might lessenbicommunal conflict. A reciprocal relationship exists betweenthe social system and political structures. Northern Irish politicalinstitutions followed the Westminster model, which facilitatedthe political exclusion of Catholics and impeded social as wellas political integration. The bicommunal social structure hasimpeded the development of more accommodating political structures.Geographic issues and external linkages compound the politicalproblem. Northern Irish politics can be viewed as a "dual dyad"in which the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland arecritical components. Psychological dimensions of Northern Irishbicommunalism further exacerbate the conflict.     

The Virtuous Polity, The Accountable Polity: Liberty and Responsibility in The Federalist

The Federalist claims to present a republican response to thetypical political problems faced by republics. That solutionrequired a departure from all models of republics known at thattime, and in particular a break with Anti-Federalist modelsthat posited heavy reliance on responsibility, understood aseither political accountability or as moral and political virtue.The Federalist challenges the Anti-Federalist notion that a"no-gap polity" is the means to safe and effective republicanism.It also challenges those who believe that virtue of people orrulers is the precondition of a republican polity. Publius doesrequire quasi-virlues of certain sorts—and thus does notrely entirely on calculating selfinterest—but these aresignificantly different from the virtues posited by earlierrepublican theorists or certain contemporary interpreters ofThe Federalist.