INTRODUCTION: EXPLOITING IT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION - TOWARDS THE INFORMATION POLITY?

This introduction to the theme issue on Towards the Information Polity? Public Administration in the information age presents the case for the systematic academic investigation of the changing relationships which characterize the ‘information polity’. This perspective on the information polity focuses on the significance of new kinds of informational resources and flows in government, and their interaction with broad directions of reform in contemporary public administration, including the new public management. It is argued that, whereas the literature of business strategy has emphasized the economic logic by which ‘informatization’ encourages organizational transformation, the articles in this issue demonstrate the importance of wider cultural, organizational and political factors to understanding processes of informatization and the changing nature of the emergent ‘information polity’.     

ISSUE NETWORKS AND THE RESTRUCTURING OF THE BRITISH AND WEST GERMAN COAL INDUSTRIES IN THE 1980s

This article uses policy network theory to examine comparatively the politics of the British and West German coal industries in the 1980s. It considers the reasons why policy in Britain was directed at restructuring and in West Germany at preserving the industry's existing structure. It focuses on the dynamics of network stability and change, and the growing importance of the international dimension in domestic policy making, a factor overlooked by network theory. The article contrasts the Thatcher and Kohl governments which, though both avowedly committed to free-markets, pursued very different policies in the coal industry. The article concludes with a brief assessment of network theory.     

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN RETRACTED: STRENGTHENING THE LINK BETWEEN PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND DECISION MAKING

Retraction: The following article from Public Administration, ‘Strengthening the link between performance measurement and decision making’, by Jeannette Taylor, published online on 18 December 2009 in Wiley Online Library ( www.wileyonlinelibrary.com ) and in Volume 89:3, September 2011, pp. 860–878 (DOI: 10.1111/j.1467‐9299.2009.01802.x), has been retracted by agreement between the author, the journal Editor in Chief, Arjen Boin, and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. The retraction has been agreed due to a production error, as a duplicate version of the article, entitled ‘Strengthening the link between performance measurement and decision making’ by the same author (DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2009.01788.x ) was previously published in volume 87:4 of the same journal. The publishers apologise to the author and to our readers for this error. REFERENCE Taylor, J. (2011), Strengthening the Link Between Performance Measurement and Decision Making. Public Administration, 89: 860–878. doi: 10.1111/j.1467‐9299.2009.01802 Many public agencies now face dual pressures to meet external accountability demands on one hand, and improve their internal performance on the other. This begs the question whether the demands that are made on public agencies to externally report on their performance have a limited or wide ranging impact on the utilization of performance indicators (PIs) for internal improvements. This article addresses this question via a small group of public agencies and public accountability authorities in Australia. It also examines the main factors that affect the use of PIs for decision making. The evidence suggests that the agencies use PIs more for meeting external reporting requirements than for achieving internal improvements. Various constraints on the use of PIs were identified, mainly technical problems, and to a lesser extent, political and organizational issues.     

A Province in Motion

<正>Northeast Hebei’s Bohai Sea economic zone is set to drive growth and provide another link between China and the rest of the world From technical experts and foreign investors to tourists, Hebei Provinceis trying to draw in a diverse crowd to fuel its development, encourage