CELEBRATING ADVERSITY: INTER‐ORGANIZATIONAL DEPENDENCE AND PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE REPORTING IN THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE

Many aspects of public policy delivery involve complex networks rather than independent agencies. Yet little work has been done to understand the nature of performance measurements in settings where the performance of one agency is heavily dependent on the activities of other agencies. The issue of dependence has implications for operational and reputational risks. Our case study is focused on performance reporting by the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Our findings indicate that performance reporting remains heavily focused on input and process measures with relatively few output or outcome measures. Contrary to expectation, the AFP did not claim credit for success and attribute poor performance to other stakeholders. However, a higher than expected proportion of the dependent performance measures were positively framed.     

Electoral Choice

Britain will hold its first election in five years on May 6.And unlike any since the early 1990s, it is very hard to see who might win. Current Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the Labor Party is unpopular and, despite work-ing hard to keep the recession from turning into a depression, is blamed for the huge lev-els of debt Britain has.     

Directing the Diplomats

Europe’s foreign affairs head faces knotty problem of developing new structure     

G8 Struggles for Relevance

<正>The world’s most powerful countries assess their dwindling influence The first meeting of the Group of Eight(G8)countries,then the G7,was convend by French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaingin the 1970s.     

Managing the Birth Pangs of the New Global Order

As British Prime Minister Gordon Brown notes in this section, we are witnessing the birth pangs of a new global order in this deepest financial and economic crash since the Great Depression. There will be plenty of pain all around for a while. And when the quarter-century leveraged-debt bubble of the United States—the explosion of which detonated the crash—is finally unwound, the new global balance will favor an Asia flush with cash. The G-20 will replace the G-7 as the executive committee of globalization. And, if wise leadership stays the course, there will be a "green lining" to the recovery as the fiscal stimulus is imbued with an environmental sensibility.