IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION REFORMS IN PAKISTAN ON SERVICE DELIVERY—AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

By bringing decision making closer to people, decentralization is expected to improve governance and service delivery outcomes. Yet, the empirical evidence on the impact of decentralization on macroeconomic performance and public sector size presents a mixed picture. However, the findings of cross‐country studies in the literature are sensitive to the way decentralization is defined, and how its extent and impact are measured. This article avoids the unwanted effects of incomparability and aggregation in cross‐country analysis. We use a unique panel data set from 183 villages in Pakistan to analyze the impact of decentralization reforms implemented in 2001 on the provision of services—street paving, construction of water canals, sanitation sewer lines, and school facilities. Our results show that the magnitude of provision of all services increased significantly following decentralization reforms. We further show that the four services are impacted differently and service delivery improvement is not uniform, but not in ways that conform to the hypotheses of patronage theory. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Temporary Staff,Contractors, and Volunteers: The Hidden Workforce in Victorian Local Government

Theories of strategic Human Resource Management (HRM) emphasise the need to understand and effectively manage the workforce, and to align HRM practices with organisational strategy. Local government in Victoria was radically revised in 1993–94 with forced amalgamations, and later the introduction of Best Value Principles. Alongside this have been changes to council workforces. This article explores the composition of these workforces, and seeks to understand if strategic HRM practices underpin their management. It reports that in addition to the ‘known’ and ‘managed’ internal workforce, many councils have an external workforce which includes temporary staff, independent contractors, those working for external contractors, volunteers, work placement students and trainees. There is little evidence that theories of strategic HRM have been used to produce workforce planning strategies and policies relating to these staff, or that their management has been strategically aligned and reviewed to align with council strategies and business plans.     

Bypassing public procurement regulation: A study of rationality in local decisionmaking

Using private contractors through procurement is common in most public sector areas. Despite the benefits of procurement, officials are sometimes tempted to circumvent procurement regulations. The aim of this article is to examine the strategies used by local governmental decisionmakers to bypass procurement regulations and to analyze the rationality underlying these officials' actions. Interviews, court documents, municipal documents, and newspaper articles describing the actions of Swedish municipal officials concerning special transport service (STS) procurements were collected and analyzed. In a case in which rural municipalities lost regular taxi services after STS procurement, we demonstrate how decisions were driven by pressure from the public and local interest groups, making municipal officials deviate from procurement regulations in striving to secure the existence of regular taxi services. One outcome was that local businesses were given preferential treatment, violating regulations and reducing economic efficiency.     

新时期地方政府网络舆情危机及其控制探析

在我国经济社会发展处于矛盾凸显期和网络社会迅速纵深发展的时代背景下,准确把握正确应对各类政府网络舆情危机,具有十分重要的战略意义。     

地方政府绩效评估中公众参与问题研究

目前我国许多地方政府在其绩效评估中,评估主体、评估信息呈现出实质性的政府垄断,公众参与形同虚设,流于形式。因此,调整评估主体,使其组成多元化;发展电子政务,创新政府绩效信息提供方式,促进信息公开化以及重视和提高公众参与政府绩效评估的能力实属当务之急。     

“The roughest form of social work:” How court officials justify bail decisions

Growing research has analyzed quantitative patterns of bail decisions and outcomes, but we know far less about how court officials justify their bail decisions. To enhance understanding of how bail decisions—and their resulting pretrial outcomes—are generated, we interviewed 104 judges, prosecutors, and public defenders in a northeastern state. Court officials in our study reported three primary justifications at bail: ensuring defendants return to court, preventing crime, and lessening harm. The first two justifications have been suggested in the literature, but the latter is novel and encompasses two secondary justifications: lessening criminal legal system harm and lessening societal harm. We show how these justifications and the decisions they enable blend risk management with rehabilitation and emerge from court officials’ shared assumption of defendants’ social marginality but varied beliefs about what to do about such marginality pretrial. Each justification allows for distinct, but at times overlapping, bail decisions. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of court official decision-making, research on racial and socioeconomic inequality, and bail reform policy.     

当前影响派出所改革深化的原因分析

派出所工作改革是一项复杂艰巨的系统工程,还面临着许多困难:一是改革的目标要求与社区建设的发展水平不相适应;二是思想认识不到位;三是公安机关内部的自身改革缺乏系统性;四是经费无保障;五是民警的素质偏低。要从根本意义上实现派出所改革的目标任重而道远。     

地方政府职能的规范化与行为的理性化

地方政府在改革开放、体制转型中扮演着极其重要的角色,规范的政府职能,理性的政府行为是市场经济的客观要求,它既能带来地区经济发展与全国市场的繁荣,也有助于市场经济体制的确立和完善。     

‘The Root Is Maya,the Practice Is Pluralist’: Xel‐jú and Indigenous Political Mobilisation in Quetzaltenango,Guatemala

Since the 1990s Latin America has witnessed the emergence of ethnic, often social movement‐based, political parties. Within this context Rigoberto Quemé Chay became the first indigenous mayor of Quetzaltenango, the second‐largest city of Guatemala, a place that until then had been marked by indigenous political exclusion and racism. This article seeks to explain why Quemé was victorious in 1995 and also why he subsequently lost the election in 2004 through an analysis of the ideational struggle within the (indigenous) political organisation, Xel‐jú, which backed Quemé's candidacy twice. I use the movements of ‘departure’, ‘manoeuvre’ and ‘arrival’ in the process of the constitution of hegemonic visions of power to analyse Xel‐jú's rise to political power.     

法定法官原则：我国管辖制度改革的新视角

我国司法实践中,常出现通过改变案件审理者而影响审判结果的现象,这与我国缺乏法定法官原则有关。法定法官原则要求法院按照预先设定的标准确定案件的管辖法院和审判法官,而不能在纠纷诉诸法院后自由裁量。我国管辖权制度改革也应当贯彻此原则,规范管辖权转移、明确级别管辖标准、禁止随意分配案件的审判法官。