The New Public Management Theory and the Reform of European Health Care Systems: An International Comparative Perspective

The New Public Management (NPM) Theory is a rhetorical construction with diverse intellectual roots. That diversity means that it is open to reinterpretation and shifts in implementation across countries (Sahlin-Andersson, 2001 Sahlin-Andersson, K. 2001. “National, international and transnational constructions of New Public Management”. In New Public Management—The transformation of ideas and practice, Edited by: Christensen, T. and ægreid, P. L. 43–72. Aldershot, , UK: Ashgate.  [Google Scholar]; Smullen, 2007 Smullen, A. 2007. Translating agency reform: Rhetoric and culture in comparative perspective, Rotterdam, , The Netherlands: PhD Dissertation, Erasmus University.  [Google Scholar]). This overview article critically investigates NPM application in various EU health care systems. NPM led to a greater focus on market forces and competition and improved information sharing and cooperation among health care networks, and changed the way care is delivered. This article also identifies significant misfits between policy announcements and NPM implementation. NPM has taken root much more substantially in the United Kingdom (UK) than in France and Germany. The variety of capitalism and institutional systems provides an explanation for divergences in NPM implementation.     

Public Sector Reforms: New Public Management without Marketization? The Danish Case

Is it possible to imagine New Public Management without marketization? In Denmark the present liberal-conservative Government has, throughout its 10 years in power, designed and implemented more than 15 major management reforms in the public sector. Although most of the reforms are rhetorically firmly rooted in neo-liberal ideologies they have, in practice, promoted tools and mechanisms of the “traditional,” or Old, Public Management. Based on an empirical study of the reforms, we suggest that the notion of “pragmatic” New Public Management is introduced to enhance the current understanding of New Public Management in the Western industrialized societies.     

Welfare Administration Reform Between Coordination and Specialization

This article identifies transboundary coordination practices and related modes of specialization in welfare administration reforms. We describe how the 2005 reform of the welfare administration in Norway started as a process of integration involving merger and partnership, but later, following the 2008 reorganization, introduced re-centralization and re-specialization. The main research questions are how we can explain this change of administrative reform? Why was the integrative administrative reform not sustainable and reorganization through re-specialization seen as a better answer to the “wicked issues” of welfare services? To answer these questions we apply a structural-instrumental perspective and a cultural-institutional perspective.     

The Public Administration Reform in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Reform Process Embedded in a Sovereignty Paradox

As the post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina has turned its interest towards a European Union membership, it has entered an accession process requiring it, among other things, to reform its public administration system. The European Union's involvement within the reform has been placed under critique, as it has been claimed to have placed Bosnia and Herzegovina's sovereignty at risk by presenting contradicting behaviors leading to a sovereignty paradox. By examining the European Union's role in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its possible relations to a sovereignty paradox in the process, the article finds sovereignty paradox indicators to exist along its processes.     

Civil Service Reform in Ethiopia: Issues,Lessons, and Future Directions

This article provides an in-depth review of the successes and challenges of public sector reform efforts in Ethiopia with a view to help other developing countries, particularly African countries, learn from Ethiopia's experiences in this regard so that they can improve the content of and approach to their public sector reforms. It also identifies the gaps in the existing literature and puts forward implications for further research in the area. The public sector reform program of Ethiopia has shown successes particularly in the areas of service delivery to citizens. However, the reform program is entangled with challenges such as lack of accountability and transparency on the part of implementing institutions, inadequate material and moral incentive to employees thus crippling the capacity to manage the implementation process, and participation from the side of different stakeholders.     

Institutional Change and Professional Norms: A Study of Grading Behavior in Higher Education

This study investigates how an institutional exogenous change interacts with professional norms in relation to behavior in public organizations. We test how a new grading scale introduced in 2007 changed grade point averages and pass rates at two university departments. Data consist of register data on grading between 2004 and 2010. We find that the new grading scale both increased grade point averages and pass rates and halted the negative time trend in these variables. These effects are even greater for exams with an external examiner. The main conclusion is that grading systems affect grading both immediately and over time.     

Reconsidering the Role of the Prefects in Turkey: Public Policies and Metropolization

Prefects are considered important actors in the formation of different public policies in Turkey. While prefects and sub-prefects are empowered by means of new policies, their roles are also altered during the process of strengthening local governments. This alteration process represents the spirit of the state reform in its broadest range, that is, the conflict between the central and the local. Another new public policy for Turkey is metropolization. The administrative structure of Turkey has been dramatically changed by the introduction of the new Metropolitan Municipality Law (Law No. 6360, 2012). Representing a major change, this law added 14 more metropolitan municipalities to the already existing 16, and abolished Special Provincial Administrations within the metropolitan municipalities. This study aims to explain the reforms made on a metropolitan level together with the transformation of the government, the central–local conflict, and the prefects’ role in these reform and transformation processes in Turkey.     

与犯罪形态有关的三个特别问题

由于分别直接关联着共同犯罪、罪数形态和犯罪的阶段形态,故＂片面共犯＂、罪数标准和＂意志以外的原因＂,构成了与犯罪形态有关的三个特别问题。基于事物的真相,＂片面共犯＂问题应按共同犯罪定性或处置,而罪数标准问题应以＂犯意与刑法特别规定结合说＂予以解答。至于＂意志以外的原因＂对犯罪阶段形态的影响,应立足于＂意志以外的原因＂作用于犯罪意志的程度及最终结果予以解答。     

改革开放与中国特色社会主义道路的选择

改革开放的进程就是我国逐步融入全球化的进程。在这一过程中,我们成功开辟了中国特色社会主义发展道路。在新的历史条件下,只有坚定不移地推进改革开放,把坚持四项基本原则同坚持改革开放结合起来,把坚持独立自主同参与经济全球化结合起来,坚持党的领导,才能使中国特色社会主义道路越走越宽广。     

陕西西部大开发税收政策执行评价及调整方向

在上一轮西部大开发政策的支持下,陕西经济社会发展取得了巨大成就。新一轮西部大开发的税收优惠政策虽已明确,但对于陕西来说,这些政策还应着重在支持陕西发展优势,支持陕西经济发展薄弱环节的税收优惠政策上,以及在宏观层面支持陕西经济社会发展的税收政策等方面予以完善。