PUBLIC MANAGEMENT REFORM IN THE UK AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

It is often assumed in the literature on public management reforms that radical changes in values, work and organization have occurred or are under way. In this paper our aim is to raise questions about this account. Focusing on three services in the UK, each dominated by organized professions – health care, housing, and social services – significant variations in the effectiveness of reforms are noted. The available research also suggests that these outcomes have been inversely proportional to the efforts expended on introducing new management practices. The most radical changes have been in housing, where, paradoxically, successive UK governments focused least attention. By contrast, in health and social services, management restructuring has been less effective, despite the greater resources devoted to it. This variation is attributed to professional values and institutions, against which reforms were directed, and the extent to which different groups became locked either into strategies of resistance or accommodation.     

GENDER AND CRIMINAL COURT OUTCOMES: AN HISTORICAL ANALYSIS*

Research on gender differences in criminal sanctions generally finds a pattern of more lenient outcomes for female offenders, while noting that the effect of gender varies in relation to a number of contextual influences. As yet, however, little attention has been paid to how the relationship of gender to court outcomes varies across different historical periods. This paper examines this issue, using data on male and female offenders committed to Middlesex County Jail, Ontario, during the Urban Reform Era (1871–1920). The findings reveal an overall pattern of more severe dispositions for female offenders in the past. At the same time, there is considerable variability in the impact of gender across different measures of sanction severity, various offender and offense attributes, and from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. The study highlights the need for research in this area to be sensitive to the historically specific nature of the relations among gender roles, formal and informal control mechanisms, and criminal sanctions.     

BYSTANDER REPORTING OF A CRIME:

A field experiment was conducted to study bystander reporting of a crime. The study investigated two primary dimensions upon which most programs which encourage reporting, namely, monetary reward and anonymity. Conditions of anonymity and reward were unobtrusively varied during a bogus interview conducted with shoppers before they entered a supermarket. Neither of these variables affected the reporting of a staged shoplifting. However, preincident behavioral intention to report was significantly correlated with reporting behavior. The findings are discussed with respect to research on intrinsic motivation and deindividuation.     

Europe's Constitutional Engagement

Abstract.  That the European Union is in a state of constitutional engagement speaks both to an obvious and urgent truth and to a less obvious but ultimately even more significant possibility. Patently, and of immediate import, with the process of national ratification in full flow following the signing of the Constitutional Treaty in Rome in October 2004—the fruit of the deliberations and negotiations of the Convention on the Future of Europe (2002–3) and the Intergovernmental Conference (2003–4)—the new union is presently in the pre-nuptial phase, and displaying many of the signs of pre-nuptial tension. Notwithstanding the legal convolutions of some of the engagement's most ardent supporters, the marriage cannot take place unless and until all twenty five member states have signalled their consent in accordance with national constitutional requirements. These requirements are diverse, and in ten cases have been interpreted as involving either a binding or an advisory referendum. And following the reaction of the June 2005 European Council to the French and Dutch "ho" votes, we will have to wait until at least 2007 for the marriage to be solemnized. As with so many engagements, therefore, there is however a strong possibility that the whole thing will be called off at the last minute. The consequences of failure would be not insignificant for the European Union, but perhaps not as significant as some fear and others hope. In what follows, by investigating instead the deeper meaning and the longer-term ambition of Europe's constitutional engagement, I seek to demonstrate that, although clearly an important variable, the ratification of this particular Treaty at this particular moment is neither necessary to nor sufficient for the realization of the EU's full constitutional potential, but that the secular process which such an initiative reflects is of vital significance.     

伙伴关系特征、网络行为与公共性： 有关可持续发展项目绩效的证据

摘要: 本文探索在复杂的可持续发展政策领域内的伙伴关系特征、网络行为与公共性之间的关系。本研究以香港为背景,该城市正在从命令—控制的政策手段逐渐转向对伙伴关系 和利益相关者参与的运用。本文认为,承诺、平等、相互性和信任等网络伙伴关系特征和网络行为会在公共性程度上有所不同,但它们总体上对于可持续发展项目的绩效具有正面的贡献。本研究的数据来自于28个可持续发展的咨询委员会或代表性组织的成员(57%的回应率),最后得到53个可持续发展项目的可用数据。分析结果显示在可持续发展项目中的政府、企业和公民社会成员并不认为在伙伴关系特征与感知到的项目绩效间存在很大的分别,但认为伙伴关系特征与网络行为存在很大的分别。多重回归分析显示信任有助于促进感知到的项目绩效,私人部门和公民社会团体人员的网络行为特征也有相同效果,尽管对于公民社会团体人员来说,网络行为与项目绩效存在负面关系。文章的结论讨论了这些研究结果对于香港以及其他地区的可持续发展项目的意义。