Measuring and Promoting Budget Transparency: The Open Budget Index as a Research and Advocacy Tool

Transparency in public budgeting has been a recognized principle of sound governance for a long time. Yet, reliable measures of budget transparency are hard to come by. This article introduces the Open Budget Index (OBI), a new tool based on surveys by independent researchers that compares key budget information published by governments across the world. Data from the latest survey, published in 2010 and covering 94 countries, reveal that on average, the state of budget transparency around the world is poor. Countries with lower incomes, weaker democratic institutions, and higher dependency on foreign aid and hydrocarbon sales tend to be less transparent. However, a number of countries have improved the quantity and coverage of the budget information that they publish, in some cases following civil society pressure based on OBI findings. More generally, OBI data help identify easy steps that governments and other actors could take to further improve budget transparency.     

Hair analysis for driving licence in cocaine and heroin users. An epidemiological study

Diagnosis of drug exposure is strongly supported by analysis of hair samples. In the province of Brescia, Italy, for regranting driving license to drug addicts or occasional abusers, a control programme was adopted including analysis of illicit drugs in two hair segments (0-3 and 3-6 cm) and in urine. From January 1998 to April 1999, upon request of the Local Medical Commission, 697 hair samples were tested in our laboratory. One hundred and eighty subjects resulted positive in hair for one or two of the controlled drug classes (73.3% for cocaine, 10% for opiates, 16.7% for both). Positive subjects were classified by residence, age, sex and license category. Seventy-two subjects were called back after 6-12 months and submitted to a second hair and urine analysis: in 34 cases the result of the first analysis was confirmed (19 negatives, 15 positives for one or both drug classes). Another 37 cases tested positive at the first control and negative at the second, suggesting the hypothesis that a strict control may have a significant deterrent function. The high percentage of negative results at the second control may be explained by the prevalence of cocaine users in the examined population. Our results allow us to conclude that the strict application of control rules lead to a decrease of social risk behaviours.     

Beijing＇s Olympic Venues

AS at the end of November 2007, construction of 26 of the Beijing 2008 Olympiad venues, along with others in Hong Kong （equestrian events）, Qingdao （sailing events）, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao （soccer） were completed. The work includes 12 new constructions and eight temporary venues and the refurbishment of 11 existing stadiums. Of the 31 venues in Beijing, 10 are scattered around the Olympic Green in northern Beijing; the remainder are in the western and eastern districts, university area and northern suburbs. Construction of the National Stadium, also known as the Bird＇s Nest, will be finished in March 2008. Test events will be held there in April.     

UNEXPECTED ADVANTAGES OF LESS ACCURATE PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS. HOW SIMPLE PRESCRIPTION DATA WORKS IN A COMPLEX SETTING REGARDING THE USE OF MEDICATIONS

In this paper we argue that performance measurement can be done better by general, less accurate measurements than by complex – and possible more accurate – ones. The conclusions of this study are drawn from a case study of the Dutch Foundation for Effective Use of Medication. While most studies about performance measurements focus on the management of public service organizations, this case study – informed by the literature from Science and Technology Studies – focuses on the active role of the measurements themselves. In the paper we show that indicators do not have to be as complex as the practices they represent – as long as they are part of a chain of intermediary data that allow travelling from the general or simple indicators to detailed data in day‐to‐day practices and vice versa. Furthermore, general indicators enable stakeholders to obtain distance from each other. Rather than the involvement of stakeholders, it is this reflexive distancing that explains the degree of compliance to performance measurement and thereby the prospect for effective co‐governance.     

RESPONSES TO MANAGERIALISM: HOW MANAGEMENT PRESSURES AFFECT MANAGERIAL RELATIONS AND LOYALTIES IN EDUCATION

Management pressures in fields like education force managers to control professionals. This generates friction. Professionals will not easily comply with control objectives; they feel responsible for clients and quality. Researchers have studied how professionals are affected and how they resist managerial interference. How managers themselves are affected by managerialism, whether they adopt control logics and are ‘driven away’ from work floors, is hardly studied. This paper studies how school managers relate to managerialism and whether they are primarily loyal to managerial agendas, or to professional workers and clients. On the basis of a qualitative study, we conclude that school managers are important mediators of managerialism. They feel loyal to performance pressures, but also to teachers and pupils. How they act in specific situations depends on how they deal with this friction within managerial work.