PLANNING AND CONTROLLING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE IN THE UK, PART II: THE EFFECTS AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE SURVEY

Part I of this article [spring 19921 examined and explained the processes by which the Treasury plans and controls public expenditure through the Public Expenditure Survey. This second part analyses the survey's effects and effectiveness. Throughout we assess the survey by the extent to which the principal functions of planning, allocating, controlling and evaluating public expenditure are articulated and performed. We use four sets of criteria. Firstly, the survey is assessed as a means of regulating the interdependent relationships of the principal participants. Secondly, as a system for making decisions about public expenditure, the survey is judged by the extent to which it has enabled governments to achieve their broad spending objectives. Thirdly, the survey is assessed b the extent to which it provides directly for the participation of ministers collectively in tie process of decision-making, and how they decide the relative priority of both the total of public expenditure and its composition. And fourthly, its effects are measured by analysing the outputs of the system - the allocation of spending to departments and agencies. In the concluding section we address directly the question of whose interests are best served by the survey.     

POLICY EVALUATION: INCORPORATING USERS’VIEWS

There is a growing recognition that obtaining feedback from users is a fundamental and integral part of measuring effectiveness and without such a perspective, policy evaluation will have limited legitimacy. There is still, however, widespread uncertainty about how best to carry this out or in what circumstances, given methodological and other constraints, such an approach is likely to be worthwhile. The aim of this article is not to rehearse in detail the merits and demerits of users as stakeholders, thereby providing a rationale for their inclusion in the evaluation process. This has been adequately covered elsewhere despite the subsequent paucity of empirical studies seeking to incorporate user perspectives. Rather, it is an attempt to suggest a set of co-requisites which would provide some guidance to would-be evaluators as to those conditions in which incorporation of user perspectives will be both methodologically sound and practically useful. In so doing, it suggests a referential rather than just an exclusively schematic approach to evaluation. It is hoped that the insights provided by the case studies described in the article will help those involved in evaluations to more quickly vet or validate desiderata in which inclusions of this stakeholder's group is desirable, expedient, permissible and authoritative.     

PROTECTING PRIVACY ACROSS BORDERS: EUROPEAN POLICIES AND PROSPECTS

This article discusses the attempt to create a system governing the use of personal data within the European Community (EC) and between it and other countries. First, the main issues involved in data protection are reviewed, and the background to current developments in international standard-setting activity is traced. The factors that affect the possibility of harmonization are then examined, and the ability of the EC to establish further convergence in data protection policy is commented upon. It is argued that, while there continue to be notable strides towards a convergence of statutory principles, of scope, and of the powers of regulatory instruments, there will remain significant obstacles to the convergence of practice.     

CELEBRATING ADVERSITY: INTER‐ORGANIZATIONAL DEPENDENCE AND PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE REPORTING IN THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE

Many aspects of public policy delivery involve complex networks rather than independent agencies. Yet little work has been done to understand the nature of performance measurements in settings where the performance of one agency is heavily dependent on the activities of other agencies. The issue of dependence has implications for operational and reputational risks. Our case study is focused on performance reporting by the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Our findings indicate that performance reporting remains heavily focused on input and process measures with relatively few output or outcome measures. Contrary to expectation, the AFP did not claim credit for success and attribute poor performance to other stakeholders. However, a higher than expected proportion of the dependent performance measures were positively framed.     

STICK-UP,STREET CULTURE,AND OFFENDER MOTIVATION*

Motivation is the central, yet arguably the most assumed, causal variable in the etiology of criminal behavior. Criminology's incomplete and imprecise understanding of this construct can be traced to the discipline's strong emphasis on background risk factors, open to the exclusion of subjective foreground conditions. In this article, we attempt to remedy this by exploring the decision-making processes of active armed robbers in real-life settings and circumstances. Our aim is to understand how and why these offenders move from an unmotivated state to one in which they are determined to commit robbery. Drawing from semistructured interviews with 86 active armed robbers, we argue that while the decision to commit robbery stems most directly from a perceived need for fast cash, this decision is activated, mediated, and shaped by participation in street culture. Street culture, and its constituent conduct norms, represents an essential intervening variable linking criminal motivation to background risk factors and subjective foreground conditions.