Who Owns What? Some Implications of the Humphry Report on Government Business Enterprises

Governments in Australia have long wrestled with the problem of managing the performance of government business enterprises (GBEs). In December 1996 the Finance Minister commissioned Richard Humphry to provide an 'internal review' of Commonwealth GBEs. While Humphry acknowledged the reality of many GBEs remaining in public hands for 'the foreseeable future', his report encouraged GBEs to be run more closely along private sector lines. According to Wettenhall, the long-term ramifications for Australia are significant, and the unique role, qualities and responsibilities of public ownership are in danger of being sidelined.     

The IPAA/University of Canberra Public Administration Research Fund

A report issued in 1996 commemorated the 10th Anniversary of this Fund, outlining its origins and purpose, briefly identifying the 21 recipients of grants from the Fund up to that time, and describing the projects for which the grants were awarded and outcomes of those grants (IPAA/UC 1996). The Fund has now run for more than another five years, and it is appropriate to report again on its activities; the Management Committee is grateful to the editors of AJPA for making space available for this report.     

Bureaucratic tenure and economic performance in centrally planned economies

Murrell and Olson (1991) set forth the hypothesis that in centrally planned economies economic interests over time become fragmented as bureaus become more autonomous and form into narrowly-based distributional coalitions. As a consequence, the national leader's encompassing interest in economic growth becomes compromised and growth begins to slow. This paper provides the first direct test of the hypothesis that growing bureaucratic autonomy results in declining economic growth in centrally planned economies.     

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AS INNOVATORS*

Abstract: This article opens with a non-Australian example of innovation in local government. Next, attention is devoted to the concept and definition of “innovation”—necessary because the word has been used in many different and often confusing ways. Some illustrations of overseas research work on local government innovation are given. The paper then considers what is currently known about innovative practices in Australian local government management. It concludes by exploring the bases of innovative managerial activity and suggesting ways in which the capacity to innovate might be enhanced.     

Medical,ethical and legal aspects of somatic gene therapy

Somatic gene therapy is one of the most fascinating and important medical developments as well as a field bearing unknown risks in human medicine of the nineties. This article tries to give a short survey on the medical applications of this new technique on the one hand and reflects possible ethical and legal implications on the other hand. We conclude that only an international agreement on risk assessment and ethical principles will lead to a adequate approach to somatic gene therapy.     

Book reviews

Karl‐Eugen Wädekin, Sozialistische Agrarpolitik in Osteuropa. II. Entwicklung und Probleme. 1960–1976. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1978. 338 pp. DM62.

Peter Vanneman, The Supreme Soviet: Politics and the Legislative Process in the Soviet Political System. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1977. xii + 256 pp. $11.75.

I. S. Koropeckyj (ed.). The Ukraine within the USSR: An Economic Balance Sheet. New York: Praeger Publishers, and London: Martin Robertson, 1977. xxi +316 pp. £14.85.

Dorothy Atkinson, Alexander Dallin, Gail Warshofsky Lapidus (eds.), Women in Russia. Hassocks, Sussex: Harvester Press, 1978. viii+410 pp. £11.50.

J. Wilczynski, Comparative Monetary Economics. London: Macmillan, 1978. x + 270 pp. £12.00.

David Turnock, Eastern Europe Studies in Industrial Geography. Kent: Dawson Publishing/Westview Press, 1978. xi+273 pp. £9.50.

Edward Allworth (ed.), Nationality Group Survival in Multi‐Ethnic States: Shifting Support Patterns in the Soviet Baltic Region. New York: Praeger Publishers, and London: Martin Robertson, 1977. xiv + 299 pp. £14.40.

Robert Conquest, Kolyma—the Arctic Death Camps. London: Macmillan, 1978. 256 pp. £6.95.

Vladimir G. Treml (ed.), Studies in Soviet Input‐Output Analysis. New York: Praeger Publishers, and London: Martin Robertson, 1977. xx + 448 pp.

Richard Hennessy, The Agrarian Question in Russia 1905–1907. The Inception of the Stolypin Reform. (Marburger Abhandlungen zur Geschichte und Kultur Osteuropas, Band 16.) Giessen: Wilhelm Schmitz Verlag, 1977. 203 pp.