政府与社会关系视角下的政府信用构成要素研究

政府与社会是一种契约关系。政府信用的实质就是在契约关系中政府的合法性问题。政府与社会的良性互动不仅构成政府信用建设的现实基础,也是政府信用要素研究的理论基础。在政府与社会关系的视角下,结合政府信用的基本原则,提炼出了七大政府信用构成要素,从系统、动态的角度分析了各构成要素所需要遵循的原则和建设目标。     

关于政府成本理论与政府成本研究中的问题

本文所讨论的问题是,在合理界定政府成本概念的基础上建立科学的政府成本理论,并分析当前政府成本领域研究中存在的诸如概念模糊、研究理念相对陈旧、研究范围狭窄、研究方法与研究工具单一等问题。将突破传统地把行政管理建立在单一的政治学范畴,进一步拓宽到包括政治学、社会学、管理学、经济学等在内的研究领域,并取得在政府决策、和谐社会建立、提升政治文明以及在同等资源情况下最大限度地改善公众福利的效果。     

Political Ideology,Public Policy and Human Development in India: Explaining the Gap Between Gujarat and Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Four decades ago the Indian states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu had identical scores on the human development index. Both states have since experienced similar rates of economic growth and Gujarat has received more foreign investment, but Tamil Nadu has witnessed much stronger advances in human development. What explains this divergence? Through comparative historical, statistical and public policy analysis and interviews, we conclude that the implementation of government policies as a manifestation of political ideology and the quality of public administration have played a defining role in explaining Gujarat’s more lopsided and Tamil Nadu’s more balanced human development trajectories. Our findings suggest that a more egalitarian ideology and higher quality of public administration have been crucial to Tamil Nadu’s success in simultaneously improving human and economic development.     

What's the Problem in Public Sector Workforce Recruitment? A Multi-Sector Comparative Analysis of Managerial Perceptions

Public sector workforce recruitment is problematic, but the nature of that problem is not clearly defined. Workforce recruitment is essentially a matching problem that requires managers to recruit desired employees in available labor pools. This research asks whether sectoral differences and competition for labor affect whether public managers frame the major problem of workforce recruitment as the size, qualifications, or work ethic of the labor pool. Using survey data from about 2,300 managers from two US states, problem attributions are modeled using multinomial logit. The findings suggest that the public and nonprofit sectors find it more problematic to recruit qualified employees than the private sector, but public and nonprofit agencies hold a comparative advantage over the private sector in recruiting employees with sufficient work ethic. Therefore, public and nonprofit managers should emphasize retention and training to leverage their comparative advantage in recruiting employees with work ethic while addressing a comparative disadvantage in recruiting qualified employees.     

In English and en Español?: Language Accessibility of County Websites

This article examines the response of U.S. county government websites to language diversity among county residents. Employing a survey of county websites and U.S. Census data, our findings reflect a general lack of Spanish language accessibility. The study finds that population size and proportion of Spanish-speaking population do not positively impact county website Spanish language accessibility. Border states from California to Florida outperform northern states. There are, however, notable exceptions to the generally negative findings of the study, especially with regard to identification of best practices and other opportunities that support efforts to become more language-inclusive.     

Make and Buy—An Alternative to Make or Buy? An Investigation of Four Theoretical Explanations in Danish Municipalities

The question of whether public organizations should provide services themselves or buy them from external suppliers has become increasingly relevant due to public-sector modernization. The literature has focused on it as a question of either make or buy. Contrarily, we focus on the reasons for public organizations to simultaneously produce and contract out similar services. The article investigates different theoretical explanations for concurrent make and buy. A survey of Danish municipalities shows that make and buy seems to be a steady choice. However, the results show little support for the theoretical explanations indicating the need for more public-oriented explanations.     

The Past and Present: A Note on the Civil Service of Kosovo: Discussing its Design,Independence, and Management

This article assesses Kosovo's post-independence efforts to reform the civil-service system and establish a merit-based civil-service system. It also provides an overview of the relationship between civil service and other political institutions and asks whether the constitutional choices have—to a certain degree—influenced the existing design of the civil service. Moreover, the article exposes the current trend of politicization and describes the models through which the latter is developing. Finally, the article asks whether the current system of recruitment, promotion, and appointment of senior managing staff preconditions a political civil-service system.     

Inter-Jurisdictional Economic Development: A Political Institution Explanation for Policy Choice

This study examines the role of formal institutions and rules of government in the formation of joint venture agreements for economic development. Research suggests local governing arrangements play an influential role in the policy area of local economic development. This study presents an argument that form of government provides incentives that influence the decision to establish a developmental, redistributive, or regional interjurisdictional agreement. The results of a multinomial logit model using survey data collected from 12 metropolitan areas provides evidence to support the hypotheses that unreformed governing institutions, compared to cities with an appointed professional manager, are more likely to form joint venture agreements that are developmental in nature.     

Conceptualizing the Tools of Government in Urban Network Governance

The alleged increase in new governance arrangements is often understood as a challenge, since public leaders are considered to be less able to influence and govern when government is only one out of several stakeholders. Some scholars argue that steering in such settings is fundamentally different from steering in a hierarchical context. This article aims to assess how a classic and generic analytical framework to tools of government, the NATO-scheme developed by Christopher Hood, fits in a setting where local governments attempt to influence networks. Based on in-depth studies of nine urban networks in Norway, we have assessed the toolbox and the use of different tools. The article demonstrates that the suggested generic framework makes sense in a network context. Thus, to bridge the classic literature on policy instruments and the growing discourse on meta-governance would probably be beneficial.     

Determinants of Government Effectiveness

The direct relationship between government effectiveness and the population's well-being has generated a growing interest about the explanatory factors of governance quality. Thus, the aim of this study is to determine the determinants of government effectiveness, in relation to the organizational environment and political and internal characteristics of public administrations. For this, we used a sample composed by 202 countries observed between 2002 and 2008. A World Bank governance indicator represents the government effectiveness. We estimated a panel data dependence model by the Generalized Method of Moments estimator to avoid heterogeneity and endogeneity problems. Furthermore, a CHAID algorithm provides a classification of governance quality according to the predicted determinants.

The results show that government effectiveness is initially explained by the organizational environment, related to economic development and educational status. Later, and according to countries’ income distribution, political constrains and some organizational characteristics, such as gender diversity and government size, may improve governance quality.