WOLF'S MODEL: Government Failure and Public Sector Reform in Advanced Industrial Democracies

Many developed nations have embarked on public sector reform programs based on the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm. This article seeks to evaluate the efficacy of NPM reform strategies as a means of dealing with the problem of “government failure” in public sector hierarchies by examining these strategies through the analytical prism provided by Wolf's theory of nonmarket failure. Drawing on the New Zealand experience, we explore the potential for NPM reform initiatives to mitigate the problems of nonmarket supply. Moreover, we examine how “autonomous policy leadership” and “advocacy coalition networks” can overcome the various obstacles to the successful implementation of reform strategies delineated by Wolf under his “conditions of nonmarket demand”. The article then focusses on the efficacy of NPM in removing, or at least reducing, the various forms of government failure identified in Wolf's taxonomic catalogue of nonmarket failure. We conclude by assessing some of the likely tradeoffs involved in the application of NPM reform programs.     

Australian Federalism: A Prospective Assessment

On 1 January 2001, Australia celebrated the centenary of itsfederal Constitution. Throughout its history, the Australianfederal system has proved both resilient and flexible, servingthe Commonwealth through the trials of depression, total war,imperial decline, and economic reconstruction. The constitutionalsystem has been developed through interpretation by the HighCourt and popular input via referendums, as well as by the ongoingprocess of intergovernmental relations. There has been an overallexpansion of Commonwealth powers with the politics of nation-building,but the states remain significantly powerful although financiallydependent on the Commonwealth. Given the institutional and popularsuccess of Australian federalism, the challenges facing theCommonwealth in the new century are not expected to be domesticor constitutional, but strategic and economic: principally,how a smallish middle power should meet the difficulties ofglobalization and security from a position of relative isolationadjacent to Asia in the southern Pacific.     

Variations in enforcing equality: a study of provincial human rights funding

Abstract: This paper reports on a study of public funding for provincial human rights legislation and programs across Canada. In the field of human rights legislation, much has been said of legal cases but little of funding and enforcement issues. Our purpose was to identify factors responsible for different levels of human rights funding on the basis of a per capita spending comparison among the provinces. The aim was also to link our findings to the applicability of theories of public policy. Factors examined were provincial revenues, the size of minority groups, interest group pressures, the administrative structure of commissions, the number of women in cabinet and the political party in power. Our findings point to the importance of party and ideology and to the applicability of the state-centred theory of public policy. Sommaire: Cet article est le compte rendu d'une étude sur le financement public des lois et programmes pmvinciaux concernant les droits de la personne à travers le Canada. En ce qui concerne les lois régissant les droits de la personne, de nom-breuses études ont porté sur les questions juridiques, mais peu ont touché les questions de financement et de mise en application. Nous avons voulu cerner les fadeurs à l'origine des divers niveaux de financement des activités de droits de la personne à partir d'une comparaison des dépenses par habitant, parmi les provinces. Nous voulions également rattacher nos constatations à l'applicabilité des théories de politique publique. Nous awns examiné les facteurs suivants: revenus provinciaux, importance des minorités, force des groupes d'intérêt, structure administrative des Commissions, présence de femmes au Conseil des ministres et enfin, parti politique au pouvoir. Nos constatations soulignent l'importance du parti, de l'idéologie et de la théorie des politiques publiques axée sur l'État.     

Federal Expenditure and Fiscal Illusion: A Test of the Flypaper Hypothesis in Australia

Despite the fact that there are strong a priori grounds forpresuming that the intergovernmental grants characteristic offiscal federalism in Australia may generate fiscal illusion,no empirical effort has been directed at this line of inquiry.The present article seeks to go some way toward remedying thisdeficiency by evaluating the flypaper variant of the fiscalillusion hypothesis using a time-series analysis of AustralianCommonwealth expenditures for 1981 to 1992. The results of theseestimations provide some tentative empirical support for theexistence of a flypaper effect on public expenditure in Australiafor the period under review.     

QUEENSLAND RAILWAYS AND EXPORT COAL*

Abstract: The article first sketches the sorry state of Queensland Railways before export coal haulage when road and air transport were undermining its traditional monopoly on freight and passenger services. It then documents the Railways' growing reliance, since the mid 1960s, on revenue and profits from transporting export coal. The negotiating process for setting freight rates and the increasing entrepreneurial approach adopted by the state are examined in some detail, particularly for the early Thiess and Utah agreements. Rough estimates of the Railways' profit from carrying coal are made from the Railways' published accounts and from Utah's figures. These figures are intended to suggest the order of magnitude of the sums involved rather than to be accurate estimates.     

The Evolution of a 'Meta-Policy': The Case of the Private Finance Initiative and the Health Sector

This article examines the evolution of the Private Finance Initiative in Britain since 1992 with particular reference to the health policy area. The initiative is presented as a 'meta-policy' in so far as it was not sectoral, but was situated above and beyond the normal run of Whitehall policies; it was also heavily ideologically driven. The evolution of the policy, however, was influenced by the policy networks and institutional interplay. In turn the PFI, as it gathered momentum, affected the culture, personnel and institutional structures within which it operated. The history of the PFI is then set against some recent theories of the policy process, particularly those produced by Peter John, stressing evolutionary approaches, and by David Marsh and Martin Smith, suggesting dialectical approaches to networks. It is suggested that there is a need for some theoretical revision which recognises the possibility that a policy itself can make a distinctive contribution to the causal process of policy change.