On the unintended consequences of publishing performance data in the public sector

Most performance indicator schemes in the public sector have been implemented on the assumption that they will yield benefits in terms of efficiency and equity. Less attention has been paid to the potential costs of such schemes. Drawing on experience from a range of sources, this paper identifies eight consequences of publishing performance data that are not necessarily intended, and which are likely to be dysfunctional. The paper gives examples of such phenomena from the UK public sector, and suggests ways in which they can be mitigated. While not challenging the desirability of publishing performance data, the paper concludes that the performance indicator philosophy is based on inadequate models of production and control. Most performance indicator schemes will therefore fail unless serious consideration is given to the deficiencies described in this paper.     

Policy analysis: past,present, and future

This article reviews three themes in the past, present and future of policy analysis—policy analysis as a paradigm for policy advice, the fragility of public policy analysis organizations, and the emergence of ideologically based policy analysis organizations. The policy sciences have evolved from the rational model and the efficiency emphasis to an increased sensitivity to political factors in policy settings and to softer forms of analysis as legitimate ways of understanding policy issues. The article traces the growth of policy analysis staff in both the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government. The article closes with a consideration of the implications for policy analysis education of the trends described above.

Commenting on the state of policy analysis is like trying to describe Southern California. Continuing claims and counter claims have been made about the area's demise. Yet, people from many backgrounds continue to flock to it and proclaim native status. Observers agree there is something important there but they warn that its future is potentially imperiled.

This is a selective roadmap to the past and present of policy analysis with some added perspectives on its future.⁽¹⁾ Three themes are developed in the discussion. One is the durability of policy analysis as a paradigm for policy advice. The second is that, despite this durability, government policy analysis organizations are fragile entities. The third is the challenge to policy analysis brought about by ideologically oriented policy movements. Rather than drawing a tight boundary around policy analysis, this discussion defines the field as those activities which are undertaken, ostensibly at least, in support of decision making about prospective actions for addressing public problems. The key distinguishing points are that the activities—whether labeled policy analysis, policy research, policy design, implementation analysis, program analysis, regulatory analysis, or something else—are: (1) decision oriented, (2) problem driven, and (3) forward 10oking.⁽²⁾ Specifically excluded from this categorization are both retrospective evaluations and traditional academic research. As the diverse set of labels listed above suggests, policy analysis presently comes in many forms and is produced in a variety of institutional settings.     

Managed care systems in the people's republic of china

This article attempts to determine whether or not managed care is the way forward for health services systems reforms in urban China. It first highlights the problems of the present Chinese urban health care financing system, which is largely based on third party fee-for-service reimbursement. It then analyses the salient features of three existing managed care systems in China -private plans, plans under the existing public and labor medical insurance systems, and the newly introduced pilot Employees Medical Insurance Scheme. Available evidence tend to suggest that all of them have been quite effective in controlling cost escalation, and that there have been some improvement in terms of equity under the new Employees Medical Insurance Scheme.     

Book Reviews

Women and Public Policy: The Shifting Boundaries Between the Public and Private Spheres. Edited by S. Baker and A. Van Doorne‐Huiskes. Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 1999. Pp.234.

Environmental Movements: Local, National and Global. Edited by Christopher Rootes. Frank Cass. 1999. Pp 316. £39.50 hb; £17.50 pb.

Driving Forces ‐ The Automobile, its Enemies and the Politics of Mobility. By James A. Dunn JR. Brookings Institution Press, 1998. Pp.230. $18.95 pb; $44.95 hb.

Perspectives on British Rural Planning Policy 1994–97. By Andrew Gilg. Ashgate, 1999. Pp.154. £35 hb.

Power to the Parishes. Special issue of Local Governance. Edited by A. Coulson. Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham, 2000. £10.

The Changing Nature of Local Government in Developing Countries. Edited by Patricia L. McCarney. Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto, 1996. Pp.314.

Planning Beyond 2000. Edited by P. Allmendinger and M. Chapman. John Wiley &; Sons, 1999. £22.50 pb.

Regional Policy and Planning in Europe. By P. Balchin, L. Sykora and G. Bull. Routledge, 1999. £15.99 pb.

Urban Policy and Politics in Britain. By Dilys M. Hill. Macmillan, 2000. Pp.254. £.14.99 pb.

Local Statesmen: The Story of Politics in Nottinghamshire County Council. By Peter Housden. The Local Government Centre, University of Warwick and Nottinghamshire County Council, 2000. Pp.219. £9.99 plus £2 postage and packaging.

County Borough Elections in England and Wales 1919–1938: A Comparative Analysis: Volume 1: Barnsley ‐ Bournemouth. By Sam Davies and Bob Morley. Ashgate, 1999. Pp.708. £80.

The British Police. Police Forces and Chief Officers 1829–2000. By Martin Stallion and David S. Wall. Police History Society, 1999. Pp.256. £15 pb.

Policing Provincial England 1829–1856: The Politics of Reform. By David Philips and Robert D. Storch. Leicester University Press, 1999. Pp.342. £55 hb.     

Southeast Asia and the Golden Triangle's Heroin Trade: Threat and Response

The Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia lies at the heart of the global heroin trade, accounting for roughly 60 percent of all illicit opium production. Narcotics from this part of the world have had an insidious, corrosive, far reaching and, at times, highly destabilizing impact. In particular, they have been linked to an explosion of AIDS, social instability, a lack of economic performance, official corruption and the growing force of organized crime. These effects have been felt, in one form or another throughout Southeast Asia, North America, Australasia, and Northeast Asia. Dealing with the threat posed by the Golden Triangles heroin trade will require a fully inclusive strategy that emphasizes both supply disruption and demand reduction. While certain Southeast Asian states have pledged to intensify the scope and effectiveness of their drug policies, official apathy is widespread and continues to mitigate against effective counter-measures.     

Six Deadly Flaws

Following publication of the Brahimi Report on the future of UN Peacekeeping Operations under Chapter 6 of the UN Charter, the author, a former Operations Officer with UNTSO-OGL on the Israeli-Lebanon border, casts a critical eye over the report's recommendations and identifies areas that raise some concern.     

Terrorism: A strategic perspective

This paper compares the U.S. national security strategy's vision for counter‐terrorism missions to the political realm in which conventional military forces and terrorists operate. Terrorist acts and state responses are analyzed to demonstrate that they have differing political effects, which calls into question the political utility of a conventional military counterterrorist response. Terrorism is placed within context of the present era as, according to Martin van Creveld, evolving historical conditions are wrenching warfare out of the political realm in which Clausewitz's analysis originally posited warfare's extension of political activity based on state power. The article also discusses terrorism's nebulous placement within the levels of war to reveal another aspect of terrorism's different relationship to the political realm. Ultimately, this challenges the U.S. national security strategy's conclusion that conventional military force used in “punitive” or “counterterrorism” operations is an effective political response to terrorism.     

Forward to the Past? Loyalist Paramilitarism in Northern Ireland Since 1994

This article considers in detail loyalist paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland since the paramilitary cease-fires of 1994. The continuing nature of contemporary loyalist violence is documented with reference to sectarian attacks against members of the “Other”/Catholic community and associated symbols of that community, violence directed at other loyalists, and the potential for future violence given constitutional uncertainty regarding Northern Ireland's position within the United Kingdom. The article also challenges assumptions within the broader literature of an inability within loyalist paramilitary groups to move beyond violence in the post-cease-fire period with particular reference to their conflict transformation efforts.