Ambiguous exchanges and the police

This article analyses exchange relationships involving public police agencies and external institutions. It specifies three general forms of exchange (Coercion, Sale and Gift), then observes that, in practice, the three may not be mutually exclusive. It identifies ambiguities that may exist within exchange relationships, and discusses the implications of these for three important aspects of police performance: efficiency or value for money; equity in the distribution of police services; and the legitimacy of the police organisation. The article concludes that managing ambiguity in exchange relations has become a challenge of 21st century policing, and that police are well advised to have elaborate guidelines in place to govern their exchange relations.     

Ethics and education for the public service in a liberal state

Graduate programs in public policy offer a variety of ethics courses focusing on framework theories, topical applications, and duties of office. Brown gives four reasons for making these types of courses an integral part of education for public service: they provide a common civic vocabulary; they give an essential perspective on analytical techniques; they challenge students' own presuppositions about public policy; and they help distinguish between empirical and conceptual issues. He argues that the growing emphasis in the policy programs on public management further enhances the importance of education in ethics, and that the current dearth of such courses in some programs seriously impedes their graduates.     

Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Celebrity Studies Today

Celebrity, being often unearned and ephemeral, is the lowest form of fame. Nevertheless, it’s a real and fascinating display of personal significance in our time. Celebrities are, of course, questionable role models, but characters of strange and singular greatness such as Elvis and Michael Jackson, everyone knows, aren’t really to be imitated. Celebrities, although they often have interesting political and spiritual opinions, are easily distinguished from political leaders. Celebrity, I show, is more a downside than not of democracy.     

The INSPIRE Framework: How Public Administrators Can Increase Compliance with Written Requests Using Behavioral Techniques

Public administrators rely on written communications to send information to citizens and stakeholders, and they are among the heaviest users of the postal service. Behavioral science research has identified several techniques that public administrators can use to increase compliance with written requests and, in turn, increase effectiveness. Currently, however, many written communications from government bodies are not written in a manner that utilizes these techniques. It remains an ongoing challenge for public administrators to identify, understand, and use these techniques in the written communications sent by their organizations. This article presents a framework capturing seven prominent techniques in a simple mnemonic—INSPIRE—that is already being used by several government bodies in Australia. It also provides practical examples of how to use each technique and demonstrates that using these techniques could result in large aggregate improvements in effectiveness and socially desirable outcomes of public administrators' written communications.