Trustworthiness: the Commentators

Mark Thompson deplores the decline in the public trust of government and of public service institutions such as the BBC. But there has also been a decline in another form of trust: government's trust in the ability of professionals such as doctors and teachers to deliver high quality public services. And, unlike Thompson's type of trust, this decline was inevitable, because it was based on untenable assumptions concerning professional motivation. The author discusses the importance of trust in an unwritten constitution, including trust in the use made of public resources, trust that appointments are being made on merit, trust that the civil service is ‘speaking truth unto power’ behind the scenes and ultimately trust that it retains the ability to serve future governments. In a world where trust in institutions is diminishing, there are still surprising levels of trust in the world of private philanthropy. The public are only too ready to give donations without seeking to question, especially in the wake of major disasters. Yet the nature of aid agencies has changed dramatically in the past thirty years into major global enterprises with sophisticated media and marketing operations. In this case a greater degree of scepticism from those who donate and paradoxically less trust might actually result in better outcomes from aid and better use of funding. Trust is critical to the mission of the FCO. The public needs to trust the competence and sound judgment of the professional diplomats. The diplomats themselves need to be able to rely on the commonsense of their fellow colleagues. Ministers and diplomats need to trust each other. And other governments need to have confidence in the discretion of their British counterparts. This is an increasing challenge in the world of instant news. Trust can be quickly lost by indiscreet or self‐serving revelations. But the key is to be as open and transparent as possible about the processes of diplomacy. A new survey commissioned by the British Journalism Review demonstrates that public confidence in journalism has collapsed over the last five years. This is particularly true for the commercial broadcasters ITV and Channel 4, whose journalism has traditionally commanded as much public esteem as the BBC. Trust in the BBC and print journalists has also declined, and journalism suffered more than any of the other 16 occupational groups being assessed. This is partly due to the cumulative effect of various “fakery” scandals that have afflicted broadcasters over the last 18 months and partly down to a more widespread cynicism directed at those in authority.     

INNOVATION TYPE AND DIFFUSION: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

This paper presents the first empirical test of innovation type and diffusion in local government. Five types of innovations – one product, three process and one ancillary – were tested in a multivariate model that included environmental, organizational and diffusion variables. The research was conducted on 120 upper tier English local authorities using a multiple informant survey instrument. Results indicate that adoption of innovation is both complex and contingent – different factors drive the diffusion of different types of innovation across upper tier English local government. These findings suggest that further research is required on the interactions of types of innovation in public organizations and that policy instruments developed to assist adoption need to be sensitive to variations between innovations.     

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF HOUSING POLICY: THE SCOTTISH SPECIAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION AND

Extreme housing conditions in inter-war urban Scotland form the background to the creation of a specialist agency, the Scottish Special Housing Association, charged with the responsibility to both relieve the housing situation and provide employment. The expansion of SSHA activities, which by 1980 made it the second largest housing authority in Scotland with 10,000 dwellings, is examined. The escalation of SSHA activities is considered in the light of inter-organizational relationships between the SSHA and the Scottish Office. The paper concludes that in the successive reformulations of housing policy the SSHA was not neutral, that it frequently anticiated policy reorientations, and was thus well placed to execute new policies once formally announced. Though it conformed to the broad outline of a'mandated agency with elements of power and resource dependency, the SSHA successfully established a degree of operational autonomy while simultaneously offering the Scottish Office a mechanism to contain the power of local government.     

SOCIAL-DEMOGRAPHIC ATTITUDES AND VIOLENCE*

In this study, we examine the relationships among social-demographic characteristics, attitudes, and violence, drawing on cultural theories. Structural equation modeling techniques are employed to examine data from a representative sample of the general population and a sample of ex-offenders. The findings indicate that age, gender, and SES are related to attitudes toward retribution and courage and to disputatiousness. Further, attitudes toward courage and retribution have significant effects on disputatiousness and violence, which explains a substantial portion of SES effects. The results suggest that lower-class persons are more likely to engage in violence to a large extent because they are more punitive and place greater emphasis on showing courage in conflicts.     

REVIEW ESSAY: DANGEROUS PEOPLE Criminal Careers and "Career Criminals" edited by Alfred Blumstein, Jacqueline Cohen, Jeffrey A. Roth, and Christy A. Visher. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1986.

Criminal Careers and "Career Criminals" edited by Alfred Blumstein, Jacqueline Cohen, Jeffrey A. Roth, and Christy A. Visher.     

An Examination of the Public Good Externalities of Professional Athletic Venues: Justifications for Public Financing?

A review of the literature shows that stadiums and arenas are insignificant in terms of creating employment, engendering aggregate increases in local spending, and increasing per capita income levels. Public subsidies, then, may be better justified with reference to the nonpecuniary, public good externalities of professional athletic venues. This research examines whether the public good externalities of Baltimore's Oriole Park and Cleveland's Jacobs Field justify the use of taxpayer resources to finance such projects. This research finds that the public good externalities of Oriole Park and Jacobs Field are determinants of willingness to support the use of taxpayer resources to finance stadium projects.     

The Interregional Incidence of Central Budgets in Federations: Some Evidence from Canada

We review the evidence on the regional incidence of federal budgets in Canada, considering both aggregate results and some specific federal expenditure programs as well as some relevant issues (e.g., the regional effect of some regulatory programs) not captured in fiscal flows. The regional distributional pattern revealed in this analysis is both robust to various reasonable adjustments and relatively stable over time. However, although such studies may provide a useful baseline for assessing performance in some respects, they cannot be used to demonstrate that one region is paying (or receiving) “too much” or “too little” in a meaningful sense.