Agency Fever? Analysis of an International Policy Fashion

In the last 15 years, the governments of many OECD countries have transferred a wide range of functions to new, agency-type organizations. Allowing for the fact that, for comparative purposes, it is difficult precisely to define agencies, and further acknowledging that in many countries agencies are far from being new, it nevertheless remains the case that there seems to have been a strong fashion for this particular organizational solution.This article investigates the apparent international convergence towards agencification. It seeks to identify the reasons for, and depth of, the trend. It asks to what extent practice has followed rhetoric. The emerging picture is a complex one. On the one hand, there seems to be a widespread belief, derived from a variety of theoretical traditions, that agencification can unleash performance improvements. On the other hand, systematic evidence for some of the hypothetical benefits is very patchy. Furthermore, the diversity of actual practice in different countries has been so great that there must sometimes be considerable doubt as to whether the basic requirements for successful performance management are being met.     

BENCHMARKING OR THE SEARCH FOR INDUSTRY BEST-PRACTICE: A SURVEY OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SECTOR

Abstract: "The continuous process of measuring products, services, and practices against the toughest competitors or those companies recognised as industry leaders. (That is)… the search for industry best practices that will lead to superior performance" (Camp 1989. p. 10).
"Benchmarking" or the "Search for Industry Best Practices" has been accepted as a useful strategic tool. The move into the public administration arena is more recent. The underlying research in both cases is limited. The paper considers the advantage of benchmarking over business intelligence systems. Also, the government's stance on establishing quality programs and the relationships to benchmarking are considered.
The paper is based on research conducted in the public sector in Westem Australia to determine the extent to which benchmarking is used. The results indicate that whilst the concept is being embraced, the full range of benefits that could accrue is as yet not being realised. Indicators as to why this is so are outlined.     

Parent-adolescent conflict and stress as a parent: Are there differences between being a mother or a father?

Parent-adolescent conflict is viewed as a common dimension of the family during the teenage years. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether mothers and fathers of young adolescents differ in their report of conflict with their adolescent, level of stress, and parenting competence. Furthermore, the role of age and gender of the young adolescents was examined. One hundred and twenty-two adolescents and their parents participated in the study. All families were intact. The families were divided into groups according to the adolescent's age and gender. Analyses of variance with three factors (adolescent's age, adolescent's gender, mothers versus fathers) were performed. Mothers and fathers did not differ on personal (depression) or marital adjustment and on perceived parenting competency. In contrast, in terms of parent-adolescent conflict, mothers reported a less positive relationship, a greater number of conflicts, and more intense discussions of conflicts with their adolescents. Gender and age of the adolescent were not important contributors to the analyses. The results suggest that, in terms of the variables examined in this study, conflict in the parent-adolescent relationship is the primary difference between mothers and fathers.     

the gender politics of political violence: women armed activists in ETA

This article aims to contribute to the developing area of feminist scholarship on women and political violence, through a study of women in one of Europe's oldest illegal armed movements, the radical Basque nationalist organization ETA. By tracing the changing patterns of women's participation in ETA over the past four decades, the article highlights the historical factors that help explain the choice of a small number of Basque women to participate directly in political violence, and shows how these factors have differed from those for men. While the gender politics of radical nationalism are intricately linked to cross-cultural associations of militarism with certain forms of masculinity, the article also stresses the importance of understanding women's activism in ETA in the context of the organization's characteristic as an ethnic nationalist movement, as well as the wider historical circumstances of the movement's development, including the modernization of Spanish and Basque society over the past four decades. Although comparisons with women in other armed movements are possible, such historical specificities undermine any attempt to construct a universal theory of women and ‘terrorism’, such as Robin Morgan's ‘couple terrorism’ thesis. Finally, the article examines the changing representations of female ETA activists in the Spanish and Basque media. Although women ETA activists are now regarded as ‘normal’, popular representations continue to link women's armed activism with deviant sexuality and the transgression of their natural destiny as mothers. The different treatment of women is evident as well in claims of sexual torture made by some detainees. The article concludes that although the participation of women in political violence poses disquieting questions for the largely anti-militarist women's movement, case studies of women in armed organizations, as well as their place in the wider practices of conflict, are an important contribution both to feminist debates about violence and to wider studies of political violence.