Does agency competition improve the quality of policy analysis? Evidence from OMB and CBO fiscal projections

Public management scholars often claim that agency competition provides an effective institutional check on monopoly authority, and hence, leads to improvement of administrative performance in public sector agencies. This logic was central for creating the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in 1975 to challenge the policy information provided by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). We challenge this conventional wisdom by demonstrating that CBO has failed to enhance the quality of U.S. fiscal policy analysis on its own terms; nor has it spurred improvements in OMB's performance. Our empirical results indicate that the quality of OMB's fiscal projections has often deteriorated since the establishment of CBO as a rival bureau. We also show that both public and private information is being shared by these agencies to produce a similar caliber of task outputs. The broader implications of our study indicate that although politicians face incentives to employ agency competition in governmental settings, this type of bureaucratic strategy does not necessarily enhance the quality of administrative performance. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Particularism versus Universalism in the Brazilian Public Administration Literature

The author draws on the Brazilian public administration literature to discuss the conflict between the need to remain open to lessons from elsewhere, while at the same time remaining grounded in a particular local context. The article begins by presenting calls by a number of Brazilian public administration scholars for what might be termed an "administrative particularism," or an assertion that universal lessons do not apply in the discipline. This is followed by a discussion of the challenges that these and other Brazilian public administration scholars identify. Further discussion will suggest these challenges, and many of the solutions most commonly offered for them, imply that, far from a uniquely Brazilian public administration, the country seeks to move closer to the model of public administration practiced elsewhere, especially in the developed world.     

THE HEAVY ENGINEERING ADJUSTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ORIGINS, PROCESS AND OUTCOMES

Abstract: An industry-specific plan for the heavy engineering industry was introduced by the federal Labor government in 1986. It is an important subject for several reasons. Heavy engineering is a vital industry but receives little publicity. The manner of the plan's introduction is representative of Labor's priorities in its first period of office. The plan's character was exemplary in its forward-looking emphasis on reconstruction. Finally, the adverse bureaucratic environment in which the plan operated provides salutary lessons for cost-efficient and workable industry policy in the future.     

The dynamics of coalition politics in Japan

Over the past seven years, Japan's party system has undergone a transition from single-party rule to multi-party coalitions, albeit under continuing LDP dominance. The LDP's propensity for coalition politics has been influenced not only by the loss of its Diet majorities but by a number of other factors including the end of the polarized party politics of the Cold War period. In this article, Aurelia George Mulgan, Associate Professor of Politics at the University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, explains the LDP's complex Diet management strategy underlying its choice of coalition partners. At the same time, Dr. George Mulgan argues that these strategies represent just a more developed form of the deal-making politics the LDP pursued during periods of evenly balanced Diet forces in the 1970s and 1980s. The key difference is the greater level of transparency and Diet-centered nature of inter-party negotiations.     

Evaluation of 1,2-indanedione and 5,6-dimethoxy-1,2-indanedione for the detection of latent fingerprints on porous surfaces

The ability of 1,2-indanedione and 5,6-dimethoxy-1,2-indanedione to detect latent prints on porous surfaces, as compared to DFO and ninhydrin, has been evaluated. Comparisons of prints developed under various conditions determined the optimum development conditions for the new reagents. The indanediones tested were found to have lower detection limits for glycine. The carrier solvent used was found to affect the quality of the prints developed. In Arklone, the new reagents developed prints that displayed superior luminescence to those developed with DFO. In HFE 7100, 1,2-indanedione and 5,6-dimethoxy-1,2-indanedione gave superior luminescence to DFO after zinc salt treatment and cooling with liquid nitrogen, both of which improve the luminescence of prints developed with 1,2-indanediones. 1,2-Indanediones could offer less expensive but effective alternatives to DFO. With further optimization, the new reagents may supersede DFO as the method of choice for the detection of latent fingerprints on porous surfaces.