Authoritariansim as indicated by measures of acceptance of authority and directiveness among police officers,students and townspeople

Conclusion Recently theory and scales measuring authoritarianism and cynicism of police have come into close scrutiny. In particular, Langworthy (1987:28,33) has concluded from his review of 21 empirical studies that police cynicism appears to have several different dimensions and that the “failure to detect cynicism or a factor closely related to it is a product of reliance on a very flawed instrument the Niederhoffer index.” To address that criticism of a faulty instrument, this research has utilized scales measuring directiveness and proauthority. For reasons of alpha coefficients, only the scores on the pro-authority scale were analyzed. Mean scores on the pro-authority scale between law officer, students, townspeople and police officers were not significantly different. When investigating variables relating to the high scores of proauthority of police officers, rank was statistically significant while age was not. For future research, separate population should be continued as well as random sampling. In addition, variables of age, sex, ethnic, rank and departmental/organizational dimensions should be explored.     

Vicious circles and the security development nexus in Somalia

The metaphor of the vicious circle is deeply embedded in analysis of protracted conflicts. Yet in at least some instances conflicts that appear to be self‐reinforcing in the short term are in the longer run producing conditions out of which new political orders can emerge. These protracted conflicts are thus dynamic, not static, crises and require post‐conflict assistance strategies that are informed by accurate trend analysis. The case of Somalia is used to illustrate the dramatic changes that occur over time in patterns of armed conflict, criminality, and governance in a collapsed state. These changes have produced a dense network of informal and formal systems of communication, cooperation, and governance in Somalia, helping local communities adapt to state collapse, manage risk, and provide for themselves a somewhat more predictable environment in which to pursue livelihoods. Crucial to this evolution of anarchy in Somalia has been the shifting interests of an emerging business community, for whom street crime and armed conflict are generally bad for business.     

Federalism: Fuzzy Global Trends

This article examines the operation of federalism from the perspective of complex evolving socio-political systems. Emerging forms of governance that operate through a mix of formal statutory instruments, culture and the effects of fuzzy logic rather than in accordance with formal constitutional provisions are examined. The paper will canvas the implications of this approach for certain specific areas of public administration within the Australian federation.     

State and local tax reform for the 1990s: Implications from Arizona

The state of Arizona recently established a temporary, blue-ribbon committee to evaluate the state's fiscal system and to recommend changes that would improve the system. The impetus for the committee was a series of budgetary difficulties in the 1980s that lawmakers hoped might be avoided in the future by implementing major structural changes suggested by a long-run analysis of the state's economy and taxes and expenditures. The findings and recommendations of the committee are relevant for states across the country. It is likely that many states will be faced with tough budgetary challenges in the decade of the 1990s because the states' revenue systems have not adapted to the changes in the level and nature of state spending responsibilities.     

The administrative liberalism of R. MacGregor Dawson

Abstract: Nothing could be more characteristic of the thought of R. MacGregor Dawson than his ideas about the role of the civil service in a liberal democracy. His approach to this question forms a distinct theory which can be called administrative liberalism. This theory can be pieced together from Dawson's diverse writings and consists of three interrelated facets. First, there is a need for a reformed, merit-based civil service; second, there must be a willingness to give the civil service “official independence”; and finally, there must be a special relationship between a minister and his officials in which there is a subtle combination of mutual respect and support. The combination of these three elements forms a unique contribution to the ongoing debate over the most satisfactory method of reconciling liberal democracy and bureaucratic administration within the framework of parliamentary government. Sommaire: Les idées de R. MacGregor Dawson à propos du rôle de la Fonction publique dans une démocratie libérale caractérisent particulièrement bien sa pensée. La façon dont il aborde la question constitue une théorie particulière que I'on pour-rait appeler Iibéralisme administratif. Sa théorie, qu'il faut construire à partir de divers textes, se compose de trois volets liés les uns aux autres. Tout d'abord, la Fonction publique doit être réformée pour se fonder davantage sur le mérite. Deuxièmement, la volonté d'octroyer à la Fonction publique une “indépendance officielle” est indispensable. Enfin, il doit exister entre le Ministre et ses représentants officiels une relation toute spéciale, fondée sur un mélange subtil de respect et de soutien mutuel. L'association de ces trois éléments apporte une contribution unique au débat toujours présent concernant la méthode la plus satisfaisante pour concilier démocratie libérale et administration bureaucratique dans le cadre de notre régime parlementaire.     

Integrated planning and Bob tunings organizational conflict

Abstract: This paper examines the introduction and operation of integrated resource planning management in the Department of Energy and Natural Resources, Government of Alberta, during the period 1976-86. In government planning, systems are introduced to increase task interdependencies, create common purposes and establish performance monitoring. Such a system forces the organizational units concerned to confront their differences. This is because planning systems change task interdependence from pooled to reciprocal. This change means that the differences between organizational units in terms of values, status, organizational processes and power are brought into the open. As a result conflict occurs, not so much because planning in uSis context represented an organizational change, but because reciprocal interdependence is inherently conflictual. This case shows that the planning systems are about both policy-making and organizational structure and processes. Changes in ways of making policy are changes in organizational operation. Outcomes such as incrementalism and political behaviour are derived from the pre-existing pattern of organizational differentiation and the way in which an innovative technical system, in this case integrated resource planning, interacts with that differentiation by changing task interdependence between resource agencies. Sommaire: Cet article traite de la mise sur pied et du mode de fonctionnement d'un service intégré de planification des ressources au ministére de l'Énergie et des Res-sources naturelles de l'Alberta entre 1976-86. Les gouvernements conçoivent des systémes de planification pour accroître l'interdépendance des tâches, fixer des objec-tifs communs et surveiller le rendement. Un systéme de ce genre fait ressortir les divergences qui existent entre les unités organisationnelles car l'interdépendance des tâches y est réciproque au lieu d'y être collective. Ceci met en lumiére les différences qui opposent les unités organisationnelles sur le plan de leurs valeurs, de leur statut, de leurs procédés organisationnels et de leurs pouvoirs. Il en découle un conflit, non pas tant parce que dans ce contexte la planification représente un changement organisational, mais parce que l'interdépendance réciproque est conflictuelle par essence. L'étude démontre que les systémes de planification touchent à la fois l'élaboration des politiques, la structure et les procécdés organisationnels. Modifier la façon d'élaborer les politiques débouche sur un changement du fonctionnement organisationnel. La comportimentation et le comportement politique qui en résultent proviennent du modéle organisationnel pré-existant, des divergences qu'il comporte et de la maniére dont un systéme technique novateur, en l'occurrence la planification intégrée des ressources, répose sur ces divergences pour modifier l'interdépendance des tâches entre les organismes ressources.