Pragmatist and Neo‐Classical Policy Paradigms in Public Services: Which is the Better Template for Program Design?

Principal-agent theory alerts principals to their problematic relationship with agents. The former are encouraged to take deliberate action to counter asymmetries in knowledge, moral hazard etc. To avoid this, principals should determine outcomes and contracts and incentives should be designed to achieve them. This approach has influenced the form of purchaser-provider arrangements, including the Job Network. This article reviews impacts, which include incentives for gaming and increased transaction costs. Another survey highlighted the extent to which innovation in the disability employment sector had depended on collaboration, which competition would end. The article then sketches an alternative pragmatic or experimental approach, which assumes that the centre can never establish outcomes that are other than provisional and corrigible. Program design needs to be built around this fundamental fact. Learning not 'carrots and sticks' is the appropriate form of relationship. The article explores the feasibility of this approach in a Job Network context .     

论妇联组织参与社会管理和公共服务的机遇和障碍

本文重点探讨了新形势下妇联组织代表妇女参与社会管理和公共服务面临的机遇和挑战,对于妇联如何更好地发挥社会组织作用、维护妇女合法权益进行了深入思考。     

试论娱乐服务场所公安机关治安管理的机制建设——以沐浴行业治安管理为例

入世以后,我国娱乐服务场所在扩大就业、提高人们生活质量、方便群众需求等方面发挥了积极的作用。但由于法律法规不完善、场所自管意识不强、治安主体关系模糊等原因,导致场所管理秩序混乱,持续发展乏力。以沐浴行业为个案,分析沐浴行业公安机关治安机制中存在的问题,探讨构建符合时代要求的娱乐服务场所治安管理工作的新机制。     

Knowing the past to understand the present - issues in the contracting for cloud based services

This article builds on our previous introductory article to cloud computing ([2009] 25 CLSR 270-274) and seeks to explain how cloud computing has evolved. We then discuss how this evolution impacts on key contractual and legal considerations and how the treatment of these considerations might differ from their treatment in traditional IT supply agreements.     

近年来服务型政府建设研究述评

服务型政府是近年来政府管理研究的重点和难点问题。本文选取2006-2009年发表的近70篇论文,试图梳理服务型政府建设的热点和特点,从研究内容、研究视角、研究领域和研究方法予以评述。籍此扩大、巩固研究共识,明晰公共服务体系建设的方向和任务,以推动服务型政府研究水平的不断提高。     

我国高教服务全过程评价指标体系及实证研究

高等教育评价是考察教育质量和水平的重要手段和途径,而评价的质量保障取决于评价指标体系的科学构建。本研究侧重于高等教育的服务功能,其评价视角是将"服务过程"与"服务结果"两方面相结合,构建了高等教育服务全过程的评价指标体系,并进一步对目前我国各地区高等教育服务的效率和实力予以了综合评价。结果表明:提高高教的效率和实力的前提是拥有较高的经济发展水平;反过来,教育的高效运行也可以进一步刺激当地经济的发展。     

农村流动人口对城市医疗服务的使用与医疗消费分析——基于北京市丰台区农村流动人口的调查

农村流动人口群体是城乡二元社会结构中出现的一个特殊群体。进入到城市中的农村流动人口,收入成为影响其医疗消费支出的最主要因素,人口因素和社会经济因素与其对城市医疗服务使用和消费支出的相关关系都不显著,年龄和家庭的特殊结构以及广泛地缺乏社会医疗保障制度的保护是造成这种结果的主要原因。同时也反映出农村流动人口在医疗资源分配与社会权利享有上的不平等状态。     

IS Success and Failure—The Problem of Scale

In the midst of Implementing Electronic Government (IEG), the almost knee-jerk reaction of our political elite seems to be to embrace hugely ambitious Information Systems (IS) solutions to public-sector operations. Problem after problem has been viewed as solvable by throwing some big IT at it. However hindsight and a wealth of evidence and examples shows that overly large-scale public-sector IT projects do not work and persistently end in failure and costly waste. In this article we consider IT projects 'failures' and the combination of social and technical factors that contribute. We illustrate our argument with more detailed reference to the Connecting for Health agenda, part of the NHS National Programme for IT. We suggest 'think local, think modular' to build on good practice and advocate use of the government's own 2004 eGovernment Interoperability Framework (eGIF) to learn lessons from past IT project catastrophes.     

Managerial autonomy: does it matter for the performance of water utilities?

The public administration literature asserts that autonomy is central to performance. In this article we develop a managerial autonomy index, which we apply to 22 water utilities in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The 16 items that underlie our composite autonomy index display a high degree of internal consistency. This speaks for the validity of the autonomy concept. We find that the autonomy scores of the 22 utilities vary widely. We also find strong and positive associations between autonomy scores and six out of eight key performance indicators. Our results support the idea that autonomy is central to the performance of water service providers. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Employer associations: collective bargaining,services and power in historical perspective: the case of the EEF in the UK

ABSTRACT

This paper makes two major contributions: firstly, following on recent research, it offers a more detailed critical analysis of the historical role and structure of Employers’ Associations (EAs), concentrating on a detailed analysis of the range of member services offered by a local Employers’ Association within the Engineering Employers Federation (the EEF) during the 1970s. This focus is in contrast to the literature which has concentrated on the EAs national or ‘central peak’ level. It secondly addresses the ‘countervailing power’ hypothesis, and in so doing it illustrates the key roles of the disputes procedure. The study, as a typical or representative case, uses a qualitative methodology of documentary research combined with triangulation interviews of former officials: evidence which has so far not been prominent in the literature. This paper is, therefore, a significant addition to our understanding of these institutions.