PUBLIC MANAGEMENT OR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION?

Abstract: The debate over managerialism has been the most controversial issue in Australian public administration journals in recent years. Although most articles have been critical, there have been responses in favour of the changes by senior public servants. One unfortunate consequence of this debate has been the appearance of a gap between academic public administration and public service practice.
This paper argues that, from several angles, the work now carried out by public services is management rather than administration. It argues that managerialism is a long-overdue reform to a model which has outlived its usefulness. The traditional model of public administration was an irrelevance for many years; it was never efficient or effective and deserved to be replaced. However, public management does not necessarily mean the widespread and uncritical adoption of practices from the private sector. What it should mean is that a distinctive public management needs to be developed. This should take account of the differences between the sectors, but still recognise that the work being done by public servants is now managerial rather than administrative.     

B. Reviews: general

AN INTRODUCTION TO ISLAM. By GERHARD ENDRESS. Translated by CAROLE HILLENBRAND. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1988. ix + 293pp. H/B £29.95, P/B £9.50.

A HISTORY OF ISLAMIC SOCIETIES. By IRA M. LAPIDUS. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988. 1002pp. £35.00.

THE GREAT POWERS AND THE MIDDLE EAST 1919–1939. Edited by URIEL DANN. (Collected Papers Series of the Dayan Centre for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University.) New York and London, Holmes and Meier Publishers, Inc., Africana Publishing Company, 1988. 434pp. $59.50 cloth.

THE RENTIER STATE. Edited by HAZEM BEBLAWI and GIACOMO LUCIANI. London, Croom Helm for Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome, 1987. 240pp.

DEVELOPMENT, ADMINISTRATION AND AID IN THE MIDDLE EAST. By GERD NONNEMAN. London and New York, Routledge, 1988. 203pp. Figures, tables. £25.00.

DOMESTIC POLITICS AND REGIONAL SECURITY: JORDAN, SYRIA AND ISRAEL. THE END OF AN ERA? By VALERIE YORKE. Aldershot, Brookfield ISA, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Gower. 1988. Published for the International Institute for Strategic Studies. 432pp. £35.00

THE BIRTH OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE PROBLEM. By B. MORRIS. Cambridge, Cambridge U.P., 1988. 400pp. £30.00.

ETHNIZITÄT UND MACHTKONKURRENZ IN INTER‐ARABISCHEN BEZIEHUNGEN: DER SYRISCH‐IRAKISCHE KONFLIKT UNTER DEN BA'ATH‐REGIMEN. By EBERHARD KIENLE. Berlin, Verlag Das Arabische Buch, 1988. 63pp.

THE SHATT‐AL‐ARAB BOUNDARY QUESTION: A LEGAL REAPPRAISAL. By KAIYIN HOMA KAIKOBAD. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988. xix, 142pp. 10 maps and figures, table of legal cases. £25.00.

IRAN AND IRAQ AT WAR. By S. CHUBIN and C. TRIPP. London, I.B. Tauris, 1988. 328pp. £19.50.

THE ARAB GULF AND THE ARAB WORLD. Edited by BRIAN R. PRIDHAM. London, Croom Helm, 1988. xv, 302pp. £35.00.

THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL: RECORD AND ANALYSIS. By R.K. RAMAZANI. Charlottesville, University Press of Virginia, 1988. 256pp. $45.00.

SAUDI ARABIA IN THE OIL ERA—REGIME AND ELITES: CONFLICT AND COLLABORATION. By MORDECHAI ABIR. London, Croom Helm, 1988. xix, 247pp. £25.00.

THE IMAMATE TRADITION OF OMAN. By J.C. WILKINSON. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987. xii, 415pp. £40.00.

MUSADDIQ, IRANIAN NATIONALISM AND OIL. Edited by JAMES A. BILL and ROGER LOUIS. Austin, University of Texas Press & London, Tauris, 1988. 358pp.

STATE, DEMOCRACY AND THE MILITARY: TURKEY IN THE 1980s. Edited by METIN HEPER and AHMET EVIN. Berlin and New York, Walter de Gruyter, 1988. 265pp.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE: THE ENLIGHTENED THINKERS AND AN ISLAMIC RENAISSANCE. By ALI SHARI'ATI. Edited and annotated by FARHANG RAJAEE; Foreword by JOHN L. ESPOSITO. Houston, Texas, Institute for Research and Islamic Studies, 1986. xix, 181pp. $25.95 (hardback), $11.95 (paperback).

THE QUR'AN IN ISLAM: ITS IMPACT AND INFLUENCE ON THE LIFE OF MUSLIMS. By ‘ALLAMAH SAYYID M.H. TABATABA'I. Translated by ASSADULLAH AD‐DHAAKIR YATE; Foreword by SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR. London and Blanco, Texas, Zahra Publications, 1987. 118pp. $14.95.

ISLAMIC SPIRITUALITY: 1. FOUNDATIONS. Edited by SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR. (World Spirituality; an Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest, vol. 19.) London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987. xxix, 450pp. 35 monochrome illustrations. £39.50.

THE MANTLE OF THE PROPHET: RELIGION AND POLITICS IN IRAN. By ROY MOTTAHEDEH. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Peregrine Books, 1987. 418pp. £6.95.

EL PALACIO OMEYA DE AMMAN I. LA ARQUITECTURA. By ANTONIO ALMAGRO GORBEA. Madrid, Instituto Hispano‐Arabe de Cultura, 1983. 207pp., including an English and an Arabic summary (30pp., unnumbered), 63 plates, 52 figures, 39 loose‐leaf drawings.     

Adolescent conceptions of the homeland: A cross-cultural study

Irish (135) and United States (123) subjects, aged from 8 to 17 years, wrote essays on their respective homelands. A content analysis revealed that American subjects, as they grow older, identify the homeland increasingly with its political ideals, while Irish subjects identify theirs with certain psychological ideals which they associate with the rural culture and landscape. Irish essays tended to be longer and more varied, and they showed a higher level of affective development. Profiles of the homeland on 7 semantic differential scales showed the break-up of a halo effect in the Irish sample. Adolescents in both countries showed a transition from concrete to abstract topics with age. The implications of these findings for research on the adolescent self-image are discussed.     

Budget Control in Virginia Public School Districts

This article examines the selection and use of a budget approval technique. Specifically, two research questions are addressed: (1) Does the use of a particular budget approval method by a governmental body impact the execution of the budget? (2) What characteristics of a local government are associated with its decision to use a particular budget approval method? Both research questions are addressed by analyzing data from public school systems in the Commonwealth of Virginia, specifically, whether using categorical budget approval differs in the accuracy of budgeting versus using a lump-sum approval method. Characteristics of Virginia school districts are also analyzed according to whether any of them are likely to be associated with school districts using a particular approval method. The remainder of this article is organized as follows: the next section describes the role of budgeting control in schools; subsequent sections review Virginia school district budgeting practices, develop the empirical model used to test the hypotheses, describe the sample, analyze the results of empirical tests and discuss implications of the findings.     

Governance and order-making in Central Asia: from illiberalism to post-liberalism?

ABSTRACT

This forum brings together five different angles on the question as to whether and how political regimes and forms of order-making can and should be researched through the concept of ‘illiberalism’. The discussion engages critically with this and associated concepts, such as ‘illiberal peace’ and ‘authoritarian conflict management’, which have been developed out of the Central Asian / Eurasian context and discussed in their wider global ramifications and, within the framing of ‘illiberal peace’, explored in various contexts in and beyond Central Asia. While further assessing the relevance and implications of this approach, this forum also attempts to think beyond ‘illiberalism’ by introducing and discussing the idea of ‘post-liberalism’. This way, the authors engage in an exchange that serves to probe both concepts and to determine their strengths and limitations when it comes to analysing and understanding politics and societal processes in Central Asia.     

Academic Capitalism and University Incentives for Faculty Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial behavior by professors—including decisions about collaboration with industry, patenting and spinning off companies—can affect the productivity of top universities’ technology transfer efforts. Interviews with 98 professors at 12 southeastern universities showed that the most significant influence on these aspects of entrepreneurial behavior is the beliefs of professors about the proper role of universities in the dissemination of knowledge. Some institutional policies, notably revenue splits with inventors, can affect aspects of this behavior. These findings suggest that both university incentive policies and ethical concerns about academic capitalism, by limiting the productivity of technology transfer efforts, have an effect on regional economic development.